Its true, its not Reys fault. He was hired for it.
But hiring him was crazy. His style is fine for Sharknife (or whatever it was called) and the comic strips at the end of the Capcom comics. But Rival Schools? Sorry, but i would even prefer the guy from the Summer Special (and notice i cant stand that guys style). That sample colored page makes it look even worse (!!!) than the cover image.
Saying that we “should be happy theres a comic” makes no sense. Were you happy for Malibus version of Street Fighter? Were you happy with the infamous clone storyline in Spider-man?
We all want to support Capcom comics. I myself have or had lots of reservations with Udons work in SF (not so much with DS), but i could still justify suporting them.
But when it gets to this point… Sorry, but no way.
Doing a comic of this license is sketchy to begin with.
It’s completely unknown to anyone outside the gaming industry and very little known inside the gaming industry. If they’re not making their core audience happy with the art style then they’ve already lost half the battle.
No one’s saying anyone is a bad artist, they’re saying that the style does not mesh well with the book. Check out the Capcom Design Works and you’ll see how the majority of the fans see Rival Schools.
It’s already turning “fanboys” off, which will be the majority of people buying this book.
That should be a red flag right there.
are fanboys that big a majority, i mean, the gaming community is big enough to be the sole people to buy a comic…especially rival schools which its fans are probabaly a minority. street fighter appeals to a general populace.
Barely anyone knows that this game even exists, let alone the story and plot line.
Not everyone that plays video games reads comics.
Who else is going to buy it besides the fans?
Look at Darkstalkers. It wasn’t doing that well because, and believe me I asked people, they don’t know anything about it.
Sure, it would pick up a few new readers here and there, but the majority were the fans of the game itself, the rest were SF collectors giving it a shot.
People, as a majority, are not willing to spend their hard earned money on something that’s completely unknown to them.
I’ve been very supportive of Erik Ko and Udon because I really like what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it, but I feel this artist for this book is a bad choice.
I hope it does well for them, but if this thread is any indication, it seems to be off to a bad start.
i aks cuz i know about comics, i know about fighting games, but not the combo. Its interesting how people react to one mans style…good god you’d think rob liefield just took over batman or something.
So, I have waited until this thread becomes a 3 page plain hate post before I step in. LOL
To you all, I know that you would like to see Alvin Lee doing ALL Capcom books. But we all know that it is impossible. So Alvin stays in SF. RS is a tricky property to tackle. Because unlike SF or DS, there has only been ONE Capcom artist doing the RS art - Edayan. So from the beginning till now, there is only ONE vision. Apathy is right. Look at Capcom Design works, then we know, RS art = Edayan. But we cannot hire Edayan. And for the longest time, I have been trying to find someone who can resemble Edayan’s work and has no luck. So I made a decision to do something different - try to do it in a totally different style of art, but to keep the essence of the game: wacky, fast pace, high school browl.
For the folks that have picked up SHARKNIFE or PENG, then you will know that Rey is highly talented in doing crazy fight sequences. All of you are welcome to call me crazy by using Rey on this. But you give RS#1 a try in Jan 2006 and come back and then tell me what you think.
P.S. That deviantart by Mark Brooks is actually a cover that we commissioned him to do for RS & DS.
udoneko: ya i think you are crazy. But i know rey’s been down with you guys since the beginning. I remeber when udon first came together it was a bunch of my favorite internet artists which was funny since u all came together as a group.
I personally found all the hate funny. Barring my own personal opinions of rey. All the hate was rediculous…but ur right its gonna be a tough thing to deal with. And rey is gonna get alot of flack because people thing of one style when dealing with a book.
but i say give it a chance, we’ve only seen preliminary stuff.
edit: even if udon wanted to get him on the comic doesn’t he have an exclusive contract with marvel…this is referring to mark brooks.
Hmm, looking at Rey’s early sketches, the art looks like it could fit in well. Maybe it’s just that particular page or something. Shoma (not Batsu. My bad) looks absolutely humongous there and Hinata’s pupils are a slight bit big, making her look like Q-Bee.
That colored page is not what it will look like. Rey does pretty much everything in three tones, so I think if you color it it comes up looking kinda funky. I am a fan of his, and I think his style actually fits in with the feelings that Rival Schools is about.
Wait till issue one before you pick it apart. We havent even seen an actual story yet.
I think if alot of people here saw Rey’s old work they might have a little more faith or whatever, or maybe they might say “oh he should do it like that and not the way he is doing it” because most everyone here has only seen Rey’s current style, ie his style developed from a Graphitti Manga style to what it is now, which I can’t label because its fairly unique, and it was either a natrual progression for Rey or it was a progression he made because there are/were alot of artists or up and coming artists that used a Graphitti Manga type style or whatever that was kinda similar to his. If you want a good example of the style Im talking about look at Skottie Young’s art.
Oh and here are some old pics of Rey’s that I inked/colored (years ago)
(the first two pics are actually SF chars, Cody and Mel, although the Cody picture wasn’t drawn as Cody, but I kinda made it into Cody cause it fit with a more modern look idea I had for him)
You can see from the above pics and by going here http://www.reyyy.com/artwork.html how much Rey’s style has developed, and Im gald Rey is finally able to do a majorly published book because at this point he’s deserved it, and his fans have waited long enough for one too.
I myself am a huge fan of both Rey’s and Rival Schools, and while Rey’s style isn’t what I (or probaly anyone else for that matter) envisioned for an RS comic, Im still happy.
As for the comic itself, Im just hoping that each story is done in a years time, ie the first RS game takes place over the course of a school year (or whatever) and the sequel (Project Justice) does the same too, so I think it be nice/cool to see RS done in twelve issues (or whatever) and the same for Project Justice too. Then if the comic is still doing well Rey/UDON can get around to the Project Justice 2 storyline that Capcom never got to make into a game.
But SF is diffrient, ie SF has been retroactively changed SO many times that in the process they’ve added ALOT of details to the story, not to mention SF spans four storylines (1, 2, 3, Alpha) and boasts a cast of 50+ characters, so it obviously will take longer.
Now lets look at something like Project Justice. When you play through the game’s story mode the format is already done like that of a comic, not to mention like ever character in the game’s path overlaps, like you could tell the whole story through Taiyo’s path in comic form and it wouldn’t take very many issues, or you/they/whoever could break it up into 3 acts (which is how PJ is I believe) and each act would involve an issue per school, like Act 1 would have six issues (Taiyo, Gedo, Gorin, etc) one for each school, and their perspective on things, Act 2 would be the same way, while act 3 would only be one or two issues because in Act 3 everyone is fighting Demon Hyo, so Project Justice could easily be done in 14 issues, and so could the first RS game if done in the same format, so it be 28 issues instead of the 24 I originaly thought of.
I understand your plight, because as Erik pointed out, RS has a very distinct style. I realize my style is not yet 100% infused with the essence of RS, I’m still learning it (trying to be as awesome as the geniuses at Capcom is not that easy :]) But I can assure you guys a fun read once the book drops. I am invested in this project, and I think I draw pretty cool action scenes… So, if anything, I can garuntee you guys some wicked fights in the comic (40 pages, much more room for fights :]). Anyone who’s read Sharknife or my new book, PENG (came out this week!) will know that I am keen to INSANE fight sequences.
Anyway, I appreciate the criticism, and I personally recognize a lot of the problems many of you have with the style-- I’m gonna work hard to make the book an enjoyable experience for all, and faithful to the Rival Schools games. While I may never reach the lofty pedastol associated with the artists of Capcom, I promise a good comic. Because I don’t make bad comics. So please just try me out! I think you’ll be surprised.
Somehow I don’t think playing it out act by act will make for a very endearing storyline for a comic. A fighting game’s storyline as presented by a fighting game is acceptable for a fighting game, but for comics, readers typically ask for more…
