Josh Crawley

by Josh Crawley

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Every so often, I get in the mood to mash some buttons, usually in the form of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the PlayStation. Along with that mood — being a comic book junkie — is usually the desire to read some comics about the characters in the games, since there’s really very little story in the games themselves (especially if, like me, you can’t really get too far into the game). Thankfully, Udon Entertainment has produced a plethora of Street Fighter products to sate my appetite for variety; can it match that with quality?

Street Fighter Gaiden Vol. 1

Having recently moved and not owning too much in the way of video game equipment (my PS is a hand-me-down from a high school friend & old roommate), it was actually relatively easy to decompress with Street Fighter Alpha 3 recently. What wasn’t so easy to do was trying to figure out which of my many, many boxes contained my Street Fighter comics produced by Udon. Working in a comic book store, though, it was easy enough to look on the shelf and see what was readily on-hand. We didn’t have any of the Udon-produced material in stock, but Udon has done a number of translated volumes of SF manga. Having been not-too-horribly enthralled with the Super Street Fighter II Cammy manga I read a few years ago, I decided against a single longer story and thought I’d give Street Fighter Gaiden Volume 1, primarily composed of 16 to 26 pages stories, a try.

I’m very glad I tried it! Many of the stories give an interesting insight to the characters they focus on. I enjoyed Eliza’s, which is really about Ken & Ryu’s friendship, until she makes an odd and out-of-place comment about how “Men have their own special world, into which we girls can never go.” I’m pretty sure both Chun-Li and Cammy would have taken exception to that when that line was first written, and there are many more woman who’ve joined the ranks of the fighters in the time since that was first written who’d join in that sentiment. Even that isn’t enough for me not to like the story, though.

There’s also a great, touching Thunder Bird story with an appearance by Balrog, as well as a story featuring Fei-Long that seems even less likely to be canon than anything else in this volume: he seems to have influenced a child that grows up to be Ryu. We also get a glimpse of Guile near the beginning of his journey for Charlie, whose likeness is handily obscured from view not by shadows, but well drawn glare on the glass of a picture frame.

On the flip side of those stories is a longer, more action-geared story featuring Chun-Li. This story didn’t do quite as much for me, possibly due to the ease with which a video game can display the fighting, while I think a well-done comic can display the more emotional moments much better.

That being said, Mami Itou does an amazing job both writing and drawing the quieter and louder moments of this book. And before I forget, the majority of this volume is in black & white, save for the first few pages.

Marshall Dillon (who’s lettered most, if not all, of the Udon-produced SF comics, if memory serves me) does some great lettering here. He does a great job of making the sound effects fit in with the rest of the art. It’s also nice to see him using Piekos Professional to letter this, as I find it much easier on the eyes than the font used for the Udon-produced comics.

Street Fighter Gaiden Vol. 2

Honestly, I liked this volume so much I’m really looking forward to reading Volume 2 very soon, in addition to all the other SF material Udon has published. If I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed SFG Vol 1, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be reviewing those, too.

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Josh Crawley may or may not be the keyboardist for Everclear. He strongly suggests you not bet that he is.

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