ConMan: Anime Expo '16 Sunday

 
July is always a solid month for me. Independence Day gives a three day weekend, Anime Expo takes place downtown, it's my birthday and then San Diego Comic-Con, so always something to do. Anime Expo aka AX, has signed to stay in Los Angeles for five years and this is was our third year attending. Lines and crowds were crazy on Friday and Saturday so I'm glad we opted to check out the show on Sunday. A quick Uber to the Los Angeles Convention Center and fast badge pick up line later, we were walking the lobby. Oh but first, an aside. My con backpack is lined with various buttons with Captain America, Arnold as Sgt. Rock, Pacific Rim, Predator and one with Kurt Russell from Used Cars that a guy offered to buy off me at SDCC a few years ago. Anyways, after putting our programs in my bag and slinging it over my shoulder, I notice something is missing, my Used Cars button was gone! This was from a one of a kind event years ago at The Arclight so I was super bummed as we retraced our steps to no avail. It's just a trinket but it was not a great start to the day. Once inside the packed exhibit floor I looked down and wondered what was on my leg, lo and behold, my button had fallen off my bag but somehow ended up catching on the magnet of my money clip inside my shorts pocket, pin point facing out and all! The lady and I high fived as my Kurt Russell, Tango & Cash style charm continued!

The exhibition floor was full of vendors offering all the anime inspired toys, models, prints and more. A local seller had shirts about Ship where you'd flip up the bottom to see your favorite characters in near kiss. Lots of stuffed animals around, especially sloths. Funko, Lootcrate, Crunchy Roll, Bandai, Capcom and more had large sections of the floor as did Toei animation with cool Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z history exhibits. Zootopia cosplay was the latest craze while I've never seen so much cross play or people walking with their heads down looking at their phone. Of all the shows I've been to, I can't think of another where I politely shoved or moved so many people out of my way who were just randomly standing in an aisle or not watching where they were going. Artist alley had been moved downstairs to Kentia hall and it was as huge as it was packed. I had to yell for people to keep walking because again, goers were literally stopping in the middle of the aisle. If you want to stop and look at something, walk over to the table, don't stand in the middle of the walkway, ya dig? Table top and card gaming was downstairs as well but the AC was not pumping so we did a round and headed back upstairs.

We trekked over to West Hall where Cosplay sets, the arcade and pachinko machines were set up. Our Uber driver later told us about his ten years in Japan and how people would lose their mortgages at the crazy gambling machines that seem like a mix of slots and pinball with a TV show playing at the same time. In another new addition, there was a history of AX set up showing timelines of locations, milestones and attendance. There were also programs, shirts and the like from past shows which was pretty cool. We also ran into our friends at Concon, a new app for all your convention needs, check it out! After several hours of walking around, it was time for lunch as we headed to the dependable Yard House at L.A. Live where we found a seat at the bar immediately. We headed back to the show, checking out cosplay gatherings out front where hundreds descended for group shots. After that it was over to the randomly crowded for a Sunday but it was a holiday so, EightyTwo for dranks and catching up with friends. I've never been a huge fan of Street Fighter: Championship Edition and it really wasn't my day as I was defeated the two times I stepped up. Final Fight was a little more forgiving as I jabbed, crossed and spun kick as Guy through several levels of Metro City.

It's great to see Anime Expo continue to expand and I'm pumped to see what next year has in store. It was another fun time and ample warm up for SDCC. For 2017 we'll see about taking a stay-cation like WonderCon and get a room to stay in the heart of the animated action. Until then, I'll be catching up on Attack on Titan, One Piece, Free!, Gundam, Beserk, Naruto...I must say, the prospect of being able to download information is one aspect of the future I'm looking forward to so I can be caught up on all of these series.

Gotta Play! Button Mash

Another day, another Los Angeles based barcade. As a child of the 80's and 90's, I grew up pumping quarters into machines at my local malls, mashing buttons to Street Fighter, Final Fight, X-Men and the like. One more recent addition to the LA scene is Echo Park's Asian fusion restaurant with a bar and arcade Button Mash. Just up the street from Union Station in downtown, Button Mash is located in a curious strip mall that holds a tropical fish store and a Domino's among other businesses. There's a small parking lot and plenty of curb side parking around the area. They were supposed to open at 4:00 PM but were actually in the midst of shooting a TV show, movie or online series whatever. Surprisingly, many an older person patron was waiting to get in as well and when I say older, I mean retirement age. I wonder what games they came to play.

The place is split up into a restaurant on one side and the arcade on the other. It's strictly beer and wine at the moment but there are several kinds of cider for people like me. Food wise you had a double hamburger next to chicken wings and tofu balls, all in, not too shabby. Then your check comes in a 90's area paperback which was a nice touch, if you ever see Governor Schwarzenegger, Party of Four, scrawled in one, that was me. Game wise it's token based and the selection is quite solid with the full X-Men, Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, Mortal Kombat II, WWF, Super Contra, pinball and more. The more I play, the more I find myself craving the Street Fighter Alpha series with it's faster action and ability to pull off super combos. But so far, that's only located at Shatto 39 not here, Eighty-Two, Blipsy's or my local burger joint that has games in it. I'm sure The One-Up has all of them on their beautiful emulator cabinet but it's not quite the same thing.

Playing MK II was a trip back down memory lane as I could not recall ANY of the moves but was quickly reminded how cheap a game it is as you can seriously just trip someone over and over again until they die. We looked up moves and before you knew it, it was all about Johnny Cage and the splits to nut punch. I'm not saying Jean-Claude Van Damme invented the move in Bloodsport but can you name me a precursor example that had as much impact? And for a place called button mash, it could use a lot more brawlers. But overall a cool joint I'd check out again.

WonderCon! Saturday & Sunday

This was a very chill con for us as once you've been to 22 shows in a year and start putting on your own events, seeing the same vendors and panels just doesn't carry the same can't miss cache. It's more about seeing con-rades, soaking up the energy and having an excuse to hang out somewhere you usually don't. The weekend was more of an in town vacation, a stay-cation if you will or in our case, a con-cation. WonderCon was just a gateway to live the Happy Hour and Hotel life as we didn't focus on the show but it was just a part of the long weekend. Starting with dranks, pizza and Batman V Superman in 4DX to the show, to video games at 82, more show and over to Hollywood for Silent Rage then our final day at the Con before heading home. Walking around sold out Saturday, WonderCon only felt crowded at certain intersections and in one case when a bunch of Star Wars cosplayers stopped traffic to parade through. I wanted to crash straight into their little ego trip but the lady requested I didn't. Another attendee next to me said something along the lines of "they're cosplayers, not f*cking royalty", exactly my friends, exactly!

Looking at the map I thought we only covered about half the floor Friday but I was wrong and we had taken in about 2/3 already. So we checked out Artist Alley, Small Press and more vendors. Capcom had Street Fighter V tournaments going on and I talked to a guy working the floor who should have been in Ken costume as he had semi-long blonde hair and was in shape. We flipped through more graphic novel boxes that were 60% off cover price and picked up some Ka-Zar and more Captain America. Cosplay wise there was an excellent Hellboy walking around with plenty more Reys, a couple of them men, along with Deadpools and Disney princesses galore. Like Friday we had oh so many panels lined up like Spotlight on John Romita, Jr., Star Wars VFX and more but like Friday, didn't attend a single one. Timing just didn't line up for us and we didn't feel like sitting around the convention center waiting. So it was back to the hotel for some relaxing and Captain America: The First Avenger on FX. I cracked up that with BatsSupes in theaters, cable had Man of Steel, Batman Begins, Spider-Man and more in rotation for the weekend.

It was another late night as we ventured to Hollywood for Cinematic Void presenting Chuck Norris flick Silent Rage and Dammaged Goods co-presented. Coming back to L.A. Live I was feeling ravenous but Yard House was jammed and most of the other joints had closed the kitchen at 10:00 PM. We ended up at the overpriced Mexican spot but it hit the spot before crashing out at 1:00 AM. Looking out the hotel window we soaked up the neon soaked view where you could see a Jesus Saves sign as well as the Eastern Building, you know, from Predator 2?! I woke up at 7:00 AM Sunday and contemplated taking a swim to get loosened up as I was creaky and sore from working out, walking and not getting a ton of sleep but opted to stay in bed and watch YouTube videos instead. Including an episode of the not good 90's USA Network Street Fighter cartoon set in Final Fight's Metro City. After an all star breakfast that included coffee, bites of a croissant and protein bar, it was back to the convention center for Sunday, which sold out as well.

It was still pretty easy to navigate without much of a crowd so I played some Street Fighter V, redeeming my horrid performance at 82. V has vibrant design and color along with pretty smooth gameplay, lots of new moves and specials that I had no clue how to execute. But my days spent at the arcade in the 90's served me well as I won two matches and stepped down to do some more walking around. Right next door was the Capcom booth who had a deal too good to turn down, two soft tees for $15! We saw a guy get turned into the purple faced, big chinned Thanos at a cinema make up school booth and did a little people watching out in the main lobby. Outside, an Easter Egg hunt was supposed to start but the little plastic shells were already out so we picked up a few that had candy and Halloween style trinkets inside. The J.W. held on to our bags after check out and we watched security shoo away some little punk kids trying to sell candy. I say punks because they were warned that they couldn't sell on the premises, started cursing then walked up to us acting like angels. A suit clad official walked them off and told them it wasn't worth it when you could tell they wanted to try and be punks. Our last Uber ride for the weekend took us home and back to reality as con-cation aka our new age version of summer vacation for pop culture loving adults came to a close.

Gotta Eat! (& Drank): Odyssey & The One-Up

It was 405 time Sunday as we headed up to Granada Hills to meet a friend at Odyssey, a long established, would be swanky establishment on top of a hill overlooking the area for brunch. The offerings were varied and delicious with breakfast staples like eggs, bacon, fresh made waffles and lox along with Chinese food, a carving station with prime rib and turkey, shrimp, crab legs, turkey pot pie and much more. It was a little pricey at $40 bucks a person but the ambiance, service and food were all excellent. Dranks were only $3.50 as well as we opted for some red wine Sangria. After eating our fill it was down the 405 to Sherman Oaks for a little button mashing at The One-Up. The place is great when no one's there because there's only one multiplayer machine with 400 titles like Final Fight, Street Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and King of Fighters. The rest of the cabinets are kind of weak sauce, 10 pages of 8 bit titles like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Ghouls and Ghosts and the sort. Solid titles but not what I think of when I come to arcade. Scrolling through the massive list, that's missing Alien VS Predator, G.I. Joe and The Avengers sadly, there's still plenty of games to keep you busy.

We started with Bomberman, where you run around dropping explosives, blowing up creatures and walls, collecting power ups and decapitating yourself with fire. It took me back to the good ol' days of Super Nintendo and then Nintendo's Game Cube, their less than successful follow up to the N64. After that it was brawling time and we set out to defeat the really loud Cadillac's and Dinosaurs game by Capcom. Originally a comic book from 1986, the title was translated into video games, a cartoon, action figures and more. After pollution and natural disasters threaten mankind, humans go underground for 600 years. When they come out, extinct life forms like dinosaurs have taken over and those with basic mechanical skills hold the power. Motor head Jack Tenrec and busty scientist Hannah Dundee are featured in the 1993 arcade game along with quick footed Mustapha Cairo and bruiser Mess O'Bradovich. Like Final Fight, you punch, kick and spin move your way through sections of the city taking on thugs and here, dinosaur slavers and a few of the creatures themselves. With 8 areas to get through, game play gets a little repetitive but you get to shoot baddies with Uzi's and shotguns, blow them up with grenades, stab them with knives and run over them with a Caddy in one part. Surprisingly bloody by today's standards, you end up in the lab of Dr. Fessenden who transforms into a big dinosaur with an alien looking creature sticking out of his chest. I'll be back to defeat another brawler soon!

Gotta Play! Knights of the Round & The Punisher

It was a pretty productive and busy Saturday as I started things off with a nice workout then my lady had a geek girl brunch thing at The One Up in Sherman Oaks. Enlisting a fellow arcade game loving friend we set out to do some brawling while the ladies did their thing. Jameson and Ginger Beer beside me, I hit Start on Capcom's Knights of the Round from 1991 and away we went. The game sees wizard Merlin sending King Arthur and his two knights Lancelot and Perceval on a mission to take out evil king Garibaldi in order to unite England. Like Final Fight you have three types of player to choose from. Arthur is like Cody, well rounded in the strength and speed department while Lancelot is Guy, being faster and a touch weaker while Perceval is your Haggar, big and slow but strongest of the trio. Opting for Lancelot with his beautiful mane of Fabio-esque hair, we mashed buttons taking out soldiers and thieves with hack and slash spin moves. Tigers are your enemy, sorry Tony while you can jump on horses and hack from above. Health replenishment comes in the forms of salads and cheese plates. Knights is cool because you level up after taking out so many baddies and picking up treasure so you gain a shoulder pad, a breast plate, a bigger sword, a gold suit of armor etc. After 7 levels of medieval mayhem, we defeated Garibaldi and united the realm.

Next up was another side scrolling beat'em up from Capcom, 1993's The Punisher. Here you can only choose Mr. P. himself Frank Castle or former Howling Commando turned head of SHIELD Nick Fury. Unlike Knights or Final Fight where each character is a little different, The Punisher and Fury are basically the same in the speed and strength department. While Punisher does a low spinning sweep special move, Nick Fury whips off his belt and goes around the world. What's great about this game is how violent it is, plus Fury smokes a stogie the entire time. Besides punching, kicking and jump side kicking, you can pick up lead pipes, samurai swords, throw knives and blast fools dead with pistols and M-16's. Oh yeah, you also grab flame throwers and set peeps on fire. You also pick up grenades and explode your enemies whenever necessary. Surprisingly violent, there's blood splatters from the sword slashes, bullet hits and in one scene, Punisher grabs a punk and shoots him under the chin! The food selection here is great, giant roasts, Swiss cheese, flan and hot dogs! This would have been prime time Jim Lee Punisher: War Journal days but I couldn't remember what villains he went up against there besides some ninjas and Bushwhacker. Luckily the blond buzz cut with gun hands Bushwhacker showed up as a boss before we fought the Kingpin. The cool thing about The One-Up is that games are on free play so who knows how many quarters it would have taken to beat these games otherwise. When we defeated Data East's Captain America and The Avengers in Salt Lake City, it took a good $10 for two of us if I recall correctly.

Still on the hunt for Capcom's brawler Alien VS Predator and Data East's run and gun G.I. Joe game. Until then, keep mashing!

Sherman Oaks Saturday: Earth 2 Comics & The One Up

Wow what a week! Started a kick ass new gig all while going into the final days leading up to the Sunbow Animation Celebration double feature of The Transformers and G.I. Joe: The Movies, fighting a cold and planning another big movie night. Saturday it was off to Sherman Oaks to check out a parking lot sale of comics with thousands of issues advertised for a buck a piece. Earth 2 Comics is located right on Ventura Blvd off the 405 a few minutes from The Galleria. The Galleria? John Conner alert! I think that was Glendale actually...Anyways, it was already a bustling scene
with people elbow to elbow skimming through books. Toys, calendars, figurines and more were also on sale but I was more there looking for issues. After whetting my appetite with some Cable (Body slide by one) from last week's Long Beach Comic Expo, I was hoping I'd run into some more 90's action and was not disappointed as I scooped up some of Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza's X-Force from 1991. Also grabbed were several issues of Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, some more 80's Captain America that I already have in boxes in Ohio, Sgt. Rock and a couple of random issues of West Coast Avengers with interesting covers. There seemed to be a lot of DC for sale and I hauled up a few issues of The Flash written by the TV writing duo of the 1990 show, Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. If you bought 20, the price went down to .50 cents so it was money well spent. The staff there were all super cool and say they hold the sale a couple times a year so we'll be sure to come back.

Since we were already in The Oaks, we cruised down to The One Up for a midday cocktail and some more brawling action following up on The Punisher mayhem from a few weeks ago. It was barely noon so the place was empty but with Space Balls on the tube and a Jameson Mule aka Dublin Donkey in hand, it was time to check out what other oddities and classics the 400 game emulator had in store for us. I really hoping for Aliens VS Predator so I could be video game Arnold aka Dutch but with a metal arm and fight xenomorphs. Alas AVP was not included but 1991's forgotten yet awesome side scrolling beat'em up Knights of the Round from Capcom was. I remember playing the crap out of that game as Lancelot, Arthur and Perceval. We settled on Cadillacs and Dinosaurs for the sheer WTF value as it's a beat'em up but with a story involving cars and dinosaurs. A comic book series turned cartoon, the Capcom arcade game came out in 1993 where you play as the hyper buff dude Jack Tenrec or hot diplomat Hannah Dundee along with fast fighting Mustapha or heavy hitter Mess O'Bradovich.

Like Final Fight or The Punisher, you roll down the streets of some crazy city where dinosaurs have been hunted and modified, becoming violent tools of gang warlords. Using your fists, feet, uzi's, shotguns, knives and TNT, you fight your way through various parts of The City by the Sea and a nearby jungle. The game had a BLARING rock and roll soundtrack and was really, really loud. But fun to button mash and brawl. It was surprisingly violent with dead dinosaur carcases, being able to use swords to hack peeps and of course shoot them with a variety of firearms. One stage you're driving a Caddy and literally trying to mow down the baddies in your way. Road rage! It was a fun morning before we needed to head to Hollywood for the big show...

Street Fighter Sunday: Assassin's Fist

This whole Street Fighter weekend kicked off because web series Assassin's Fist dropped all 12 episodes onto YouTube Friday.  2010's fan film, Street Fighter: Legacy was an effort from SF super fan, martial artist and filmmaker Joey Ansah to make a faithful adaptation of the worldwide phenomenon following two less than well received big screen attempts.  4 years and 5 million views later, Ansah and company have completed their follow up, a 12 part prequel of sorts to the Street Fighter II storyline featuring video game stalwarts Ken and Ryu as well as their karate fighting, fireball throwing, dragon punching predecessors Gouken and Goki.  The short and series were given the blessing of Capcom, the company behind the Street Fighter franchise as well as games like Mega Man, Resident Evil, Final Fight, Devil May Cry and Strider.  Assassin's Fist attempted to go the crowd fundraising route via Kickstarter but private investors stepped in to finance the shindig.  Shooting in Bulgaria in the Summer of 2013, Assassin's Fist is being streamed online via Machinima with plans to combine the 12 episodes into 6 for television then re-edited into a television movie and finally a full, uncut version for DVD/Blu-Ray.  Phew!

Assassin's Fist comes on the heels of rival fighting franchise Mortal Kombat going the web series route after director Kevin Tancharoen made a purported $7,500.00 short film over a weekend to sell his idea to Warner Brothers.  A feature film was never greenlit but Tancharoen and company have produced 2 seasons and 26 episodes of Mortal Kombat for the internet and gaming audience while garnering 10's of millions of views. I don't think Street Fighter is going to reach those heights as Assassin's Fist is a noble effort and will be appreciated by hardcore fans but there might not be enough here to keep casual fans coming back.  Director, writer and co-star Ansah got his start as a martial artist/stuntman/fight choreographer best known for a fight scene with Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum.  Teaming up with Christian Howard, a fellow with the same interests and fringe movie making credits, the duo set out to make the ultimate Street Fighter adaptation drawn from the lore of the video games and comic books.  While their intentions, passion and attention to detail are to be commended, I think they stuck a little too close to the games and comics and didn't let the concept breathe in order to be translated to another medium.

The story follows Ken (Howard) and Ryu (Mike Moh taking over for Legacy's John Foo), teenagers training karate in the remote hills and mountains of Japan.  Ryu was found wandering the woods as a child and is adopted by Gouken and taught the ways of the warrior and Ansatsuken (Assassin's Fist) style.  Ken's father knows Gouken somehow and following the loss of his wife, sends Ken to Gouken to straighten out while he fixes the family business.  I'm not sure if they go back to school in the fall a la 3 Ninjas but cut to 10 years later and the duo are strapping teenagers (played by 30 year olds) and ready to take their training to the next level.  The only problem is, the last guys who did Ansatsuken were Gouken, his rival Goki and their sensei, Gotetsu.  We learn that Goki tapped into the dark hado (spiritual energy or ki) and was consumed with harnessing it's power and becoming the lone master of Ansatsuken which transforms him into video game villain Akuma (Ansah with Lou Ferrigno Hulk like prosthetics and a red wig).  While Ken and Ryu are learning to use hado for their famous fireballs aka Hadoken, Ryu unknowingly taps into the dark side.

It's these two parallel story lines that make Assassin's Fist something special as well as alienating.  For fans of the video game or Mortal Kombat series, there is a distinct lack of familiar characters from the franchise involved.  Ken, Ryu and Akuma are staples of the SF franchise while Gouken and Gotetsu get their histories illuminated in the comic series.  There's a mention of future playable characters Gen and Dan but that's about it.  Surprisingly, much of the drama unfolds in the past with Gouken, Goki, Gotetsu (geez, like G's much, Capcom?) and the coming of Akuma.  These segments are all in Japanese with subtitles and if the lackluster performance of The Raid 2 has taught us anything, American's don't exactly love their action flicks with subtitles.  Especially ones who are most likely going to have this playing in a small window on their larger computer display as background noise.

Also, for a series called Street Fighter, there's not a lot of actual fighting going on.  Sure there's plenty of training scenes, quiet kata performances and introspection happening but the namesake action of the show seems to have been replaced by Batman Begins like needing to explain where everybody and everything came from.  Even when the two sneak into a local bar and participate in a street fight, we see Ryu dispatching one opponent with a kick in a distant long shot so it's a bit of a wasted opportunity.  I did appreciate Ken's casual outfit straight out of the Udon comics though.  The appearances of the characters are all derived straight from the comics and games which makes it seem like a bit of a live action cartoon.  I wondered how Ken and Akuma could fight with all the hair in their face.  Moh and Howard aren't exactly in the prime of their acting careers so performances are a little wooden at times but Moh does a good job of playing quiet, scared and uncertain as Ryu while Howard's Ken is likeable but arrogant.  Ruggedly handsome stuntman/actor Mark Killeen shows up as Ken's dad for two brief scenes.  At first I wondered if they considered B-movie action/martial arts hero Gary Daniels for the role but Killeen does a nice job of being imposing yet paternal while doing some boxing training in business attire.

When the fights do happen, all of the actors' martial arts prowess are put on full display with some nice punch combos and kicks of all heights and varieties being thrown.  Ansah could have cooled it on the slow motion though and just let shit fly.  Special moves like the fireball, hurricane kick and dragon punch all get their moments but lack a certain OOMPH and impact for some reason.  Maybe it's because the series tries so hard to be like the video game and cartoons but doesn't change it's style to accommodate live action where close ups, make up, slow motion and sound effects can be used to make audiences cringe and feel the impact of the violence happening on screen.  That knowing nod to it's source material helps keep the tone light when necessary and I cracked up when they were lifting weights to the 80's sounding synth electronic video game score and when the duo can't train one day because Ken receives a copy of Mega Man 2 for the NES from his dad.

Congratulations to Ansah, Howard, producer Jacqueline Quella and everyone involved for bringing their passion project to life.  Hopefully we get to a second season where they're provided more resources and a chance to have a little more fun.

Street Fighter Saturday: Paneled Goods

It's been a Street Fighter filled weekend, partly by coincidence, mainly by choice.  First off, the live action web series Assassin's Fist debuted on YouTube via Machinima and fans could binge watch all 12 installments.  The weekend also included a birthday party at a newly opened barcade (bar/arcade) downtown where you guessed it, Street Fighter: Championship Edition was waiting for some button mashing.  I'm not a huge video game person but have always loved Street Fighter.  At it's core, it is the tale of the world warrior and a tournament designed to find the greatest fighter in the world.  Boxing, karate, sumo, thai boxing, etc are all represented by a cast of eclectic characters from around the globe.  I remember playing Street Fighter II at the local mall(s) along with stuff like Final Fight, the X-Men 6 person game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avengers, The Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, the G.I. Joe run and gun game and so many more in the early 90's.  As a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan and young martial arts enthusiast, SF was just the brand for me.  Mortal Kombat with it's ripped off story line, cheap play and added violence for attention just seemed like the game for poseurs and trendy fad types.  Street Fighter was classic, stoic and the original institution for fighting games.

In 1994, I would go to Electronics Boutique, (remember that place?!) to check out the latest games for the Super Nintendo.  They also sold a comic book I couldn't find in my local shop, an adaptation of Street Fighter from renowned Japanese artist and writer Masaomi Kanzaki.  Originally printed as a black and white Manga (little graphic novels read back to front), Street Fighter II was translated into English, colorized and rearranged to make a typical American style comic book.  The story of an artificial island dubbed Shad, a project of leading world economies working in harmony to produce a metropolitan power that fails under harsh financial woes.  Falling into disrepair, Shad becomes home to M. Bison and an annual grand tournament to find the world's best fighter.  Bison uses the island and tournament to sell a new drug called Doll which basically makes people into violent psychos and easily mind controlled.  Yeah, it's not exactly the deepest or most logical story that could go with a street fighting tournament.

We meet Ryu, a happy go lucky karate fighter with a huge appetite as he arrives in Shad looking to win the big tournament who can conjure up his energy and spirit and throw it at you in the form of a fireball known as a Hadouken.  Immediately befriending the struggling and grieving Po-Lin and her little brother Wong at their family restaurant, Ryu becomes their benefactor and protector from the city's local organized crime element.  We soon meet other fighters with their own reasons for being in Shad and fighting in the tournament.  There's female law enforcement officer Chun-Li, whose father was investigating Doll and killed by Bison.  More revenge fueled fighting comes from American Air Force pilot Guile, who's out to avenge the death of his best friend and unit due to Doll use.  Guile can conjure up pure energy by breaking the sound barrier and throwing it at you as a Sonic Boom.  Then we have Dhalsim from India who uses his winnings from the bouts to feed the hungry children in his country and can breathe fire.  Former sumo wrestling champion E. Honda is just looking for a new challenge (and ladies) while Bison employs former boxing phenomenon Balrog, the claw wielding, mask wearing, vain matador/ninja Vega and Muy Thai boxing giant Sagat as his ring of champions/assassins.

As our motley crew fights through the tournament and we learn more about them, we're later introduced to Ken, a blonde haired karate master that used to train with Ryu and knew Po-Lin's fiance, Cho, who has something to do with Doll then gets a knife to the chest from Vega.  Only now Ken is under the control of Bison and tries to kill Ryu by dumping a truck load of wet cement on him.  Yeesh, I thought we were friends!  In the comic we meet Ken and Ryu's teacher, Gouken, who gets his ass kicked by Bison in a flashback where Bison, Sagat and Vega are hunting down Cho and end up at the dojo.  Here, Ryu faces off with Sagat and hits him with the Sho-Ryu-Ken aka Dragon Punch and scars him for life.

Reading the comics again was a trip down memory lane.  First because I bought them as an 11 year old 20 years ago and because I'd just plain forgotten how convoluted the Street Fighter mythos is.  You wouldn't think a fighting tournament would need to have root in drug dealing crime syndicates but anytime the history is expanded upon, there's Shad, Shadowlaw, Shadaloo, etc to explain Bison's position of power.  Then there's the whole back story of Ken and Ryu being friends and rivals since childhood then the added vengeance stories of Chun-Li and Guile.  The comics read fast, like real fast and I breezed through all 8 issues in no time.  The art is an interesting mix of painted like texture, big visual battles with their mystical powers and cartoonish big eyes and expressions.  I laughed at some of the broad comedy in the pages like Ryu's penchant for eating and E. Honda being a pervert during his fight with the lovely Chun-Li.  While the story might not quite add up, Street Fighter II is a nice piece of the lore and helped expand the brand beyond arcade and video games.  Toys, posters, key chains, animated movies and shows, live action features and much more were on the way.