My first encounter with the quite excellent Street Fighter comic book was in the form of an exclusive graphic novel at Blockbuster. Entitled, Round One: FIGHT! it had issues #0-#6 and a great sampling of all the cover art for the respective issues. It was a sweet buy, and I’m wondering if this Udon/Blockbuster collaboration will be continued in the future. Does anyone else have this?
There is a standard version TPB you know that right? The Blockbuster edition is just the Volume 1 TPB with an alternative cover. It’s your usual Udon variant cash-in project.
EDIT: Round 2 is out now btw.
FYI, it is NOT a cash in project, coz we make NO money off the BB trade. There are a lot of set up fees and books are not returnable but destroyed for the copies not sold on deals like these (the same as all newstand deals with magazines etc.) And I can tell you the whole reason why we still want to do it is becoz we want to have the exposure of another market. People going to Blockbusters regularly mostly do not go to a comic store. That is why we made a deal with BB. We shipped 10000 books so that all corporate owned Blockbusters can have at least 3 copies on the shelves. It’s all on consignment for a certain period of time like any newstand magazines. We are fortunate that the sell thru is decent that BB decide to keep them on the shelves longer rather than pulling all unsold copies and send them to recycle plants. But I can tell you that we have not yet made a penny out of this to date and after deducting the printing and paying Shinkiro for the cover art, we will most likely just break even if we are lucky.
I am a little sick and tired of seeing some of you saying we are only going for you cash. We do a lot of things to keep ourselves alive, to keep the SF book alive, and also to try to expand the market. Yes, doing variant covers can possibly make us some extra money. But those money are used to keep the project going. For the people who likes to collect, I believe the different covers are a fun chase. For those who are more cautious of their budget, then you can always just pick one cover and buy one copy instead. We are very open to this, unlike any other publishers that do a equal allocation on variant covers, we actually let you guys order which ever you want instead. What more do u guys want?
I don’t want anything more than what you guys are doing.I collect ALL the covers,foils,special editions,etc.,because i love the darkstalkers and street fighter franchises and it is very easy to see the love you guys put into it.Top notch,and its OK to make money when you can.We all need money to live and you have to make a profit,right?And I hope you guys make HUGE money because I think you guys deserve it.Well,I am only one person and it may mean very little,but thank you,udoneko and you staff for bringing me some joy in collecting and reading comics once again.It has been ten years or so since I have gotten any comics before you guys came around,now I can’t wait til the next issue of street fighter and darkstalkers comes around!
As consumers we see only the end product and not the development and business side of production. For instance, before you gave us the facts on profit for the Blockbuster deal, I’m sure nobody here knew. Because the full picture is not known, some assumptions made will be incorrect.
This is why I think the articles you have written for the production of the Exalted comic is a good idea. It educates how the process is done and costs involved giving readers a better understanding.
Thank you for the informative post, udoneko. I’m sure like practically everyone else here, I wish the best for your business and am impressed with the top-quality treatment that has been done to the Capcom characters in your products. Good stuff. If there is in fact a “standard TPB” about (and if someone told me what TPB stood for that would help, too) is this the one you actually make real money on? I’d like to support the cause and maybe track down some of those cool variant covers but I also have to be a bit frugal, too. A book like Round One: FIGHT! was a pretty good fit.
TPB means Trade Paper Back. Paper Backs are mostly a collection or a reprinting of books that is offered in a lower price and a hmore handy format. Like how hard cover novels are reprinted in soft cover paper backs at a lower price, or in our case, the monthly comics are collected into one book for handy reading.
And thanks for your support! If you like Round One, be sure to go find Round 2 - The New Challengers! which is already on shelves at a comic store near you!
Will do. :party:
Is Street Fighter the only title currently getting TPB treatment? Or is there a Darkstalkers one in the works as well? Either way, I got Round 2, easy.
Yeah, I agree with you guys, Udon are doing a fantastic job and they deserve to make it big. I buy every issue, and if each issue has variant covers with Cammy on them, I buy those too, so I pretty much have most of the covers so far (except the Cammy powerfoil one, I want that one so much). I also have the two Trade Paperbacks, the long poster with all the characters on it, and the Chun-Li poster. I really hope you stretch the story out to last for years to come. I reccomend your comics to everyone I talk to, I read a LOT of comics every month, including Astonishing X-Men, Superman Batman, Lady Death, and was reading Transformers until Dreamwave died… but I STILL think Street Fighter is the best comic out there, and I’ve just started getting into Darkstalkers too now which is awesome too! Thankyou so much, I’m not sucking up, I really appreciate what you’ve done for us all and wish you the best of luck.
By the way, can you PLEEEEEEASE make a Cammy door poster? Maybe a Felicia one too!
Personally, I’m glad the BB books are out. I spent days trying to find the TPB at local comic book stores and even larger chains, all with no luck(I’m pretty much the only SF reader in my county, it seems). I walk into a Blockbuster that day and there it is, last copy.
norlee: udon totally pwned you :nunchuck:
You think? Really so because Erik posted about the BB poject making them no money I’m still completely off-track huh?
I was going to keep quiet but nobody has said anything about Udon’s cashing in for ages thank you very much Erik, I’m the first in months.
Let’s see Udon are making a Street Fighter comic eh? Okay fine so I was wrong about the BB poject. Why you chose BB is beyond me since a game store only would have been a better choice than a video rental store. Anyways if Shinkiro costed you so much money why didn’t you just use your own artists? In fact why did you feel the need to change the artwork at all? The one would have been perfectly fine. If things are as bad as you imply then you keep that up and you’ll be out of funds.
My biggest gripe with Udon atm, why does a comic need 3 variants? For choice? No they hope that people will buy all of these variants and get ripped off collecting them because as Erik marginally pointed out they do make a little bit of money from it. The limited edition versions that you guys were constantly churning out for the first arc was just taking the piss and anyone who can’t see that is an idiot.
Anyways as I said Udon are making a comic, so let’s see we’re also getting busts, posters, action figures and god knows what crap is yet to come. Why is Udon doing this hm? This should be a Capcom deal, the official SF licence. If Capcom doesn’t do it that’s there bag but Udon is taking this poject with the merchandising department for all it’s worth and there’s little point in denying it. If they are making as little money as they say then they should be concentrating on the actual comic, not the crap that comes out for the fans.
Basically, Udon=creating comic not owners of SF franchise. Yet Capcom seem to be letting them do almost as they please, probably because as usual they’re too lazy to do anything themselves. In the end Udon is an organisation so yes they need to make money, but their money is supposed to be in the comic industry not all the other crap Capcom lets them come up with. If they can’t get the money from the comic alone, too bad.
Enter the fanboys.
Wow, this kind of stupidity must be going around because I JUST read something like this on newsarama under an Aspen article…
Right, because who cares about the fans?
I guess you haven’t put 2 and 2 together and figured out that if they were to make ONLY the comic book (variants included) there would BE NO COMIC, as of issue 5? Maybe 6? The comic cannot sustain them alone.
Also: and this one is important…**No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to buy anything. The variant covers and other merchandise are there for the people who WANT TO SPEND THE MONEY. Collectors will collect all the variants because they want to have ALL the variants. **
You might as well be bitching about there being more than one kind of Coke. Or Hotpockets. “OMG Y DEW U HAVE CHEESEBURGER AND 5 CHEESE I DONT EAT THAT!!!111oneoneoneeleven”
And another thing; You have no god damn CLUE what deal Udon struck with Capcom. You thought they were making money on the BB deal, and lull and behold you were dead wrong.
"If they can’t get the money from the comic alone, too bad."
That line there is fucking hilarious.
Go build a bridge.
Ah as usual Apathy the #1 Udon cheerleader comes to protect those that he loves so much. Nice to see you posting again lady.
Whoever posted that on Newsarama had a valid point. Sadly there are those that are obsessive SF fans that do buy whatever crap is chucked at them, it’s like they can’t help themselves. I don’t buy them because hey I’m not that sad but I can see when something is being milked to death, of course the cheerleaders are blind and can’t see that they’re being milked for all their worth. A little merchandising? Yeah no problem but Udon go all the damn way geez. It’s a matter of principle.
Who cares about the fans? Believe it or not most of the time nobody, they care only about their pocket. You believe that Udon adores you guys just because they say that they do? They only love what’s in your wallet, that’s what “support our comic” means. They don’t do things for free you know as well they shouldn’t, but to have to read your posts making them look holy is ridiculous. You know as little as me; what’s the difference? you’re a fanatic.
If the SF comic can’t survive on the comic alone then guess what? Maybe just maybe it didn’t deserve to do well and should have gone out the window then? If Udon can’t keep the sales of the comic going on the books alone then that should tell you soemthing. If the SF comics were as big as say the Marvel stuff then yeah okay merchandising is to be expected but SF in its comic form is pretty small fry judging how desperate Erik always sounds about the sales. If this comic had to rely on its merchandise then this comic is not successful meaning Udon failed.
I’m aware of that, I feel sorry for them collector’s because they actually don’t think about it at all. Just like you. Blowing money on crap because they don’t have better things to spend their money on.
That kind of shit is typical from you, you really need to get better at this.
[qoute=Apathy-Inc]And another thing; You have no god damn CLUE what deal Udon struck with Capcom. You thought they were making money on the BB deal, and lull and behold you were dead wrong.
[/quote]
Ah this is where we’re on equal terms, nobody actually knows fully what SF has in the pipeline. So I was wrong about the BB deal? Big whoop but I’m right about the rest of it no matter what you or Erik says. Money makes the world go round, my point? Udon doesn’t give a damn about you like you seem to have convinced yourself.
Heh but its so true, they’re in the comic business, that’s what they’re expected to produce. If they can’t make it on what they produce then oh dear.
I suppose I’m wasting my time on you lot, you’re all SF obsessives here afterall. I feel sorry for yer I really do. Capcom’s pretty much letting SF decline I suppose you think Capcom cares about you too? Udon’s the only one helping SF atm, the company that actually matters when it comes to SF have pretty much abandoned it for their cross-over and Capcom clash games.
OMG. Shut the fuck up,Northlee.You know shit about the comic industry and you have made yourself a bigger idiot with every post you make.If I produced comics for capcom,then I too would make every single thing I could other than the comic.That’s just the smart business thing to do,so I beg of you to stop posting already because you are sounding less intellegent each time.
It’s good to know I was missed. I had complete faith that in my absense there would still be at least one jackass running his ignorant mouth on a forum. TimeStop must be off picketing a Wal-Mart or something, looks like you’re standing in this time.
It’s very nice to know that your life revloves around the big issues, like Cancer, starving children, crime, things that don’t concern you at all. You honestly care this much how complete strangers spend their money?
Yeah, you’re the enlightend one, everyone else is blind to the truth that only you see!:rolleyes:
I know a lot more than you do. Unlike you I happen to BE IN the comic industry and know a little about how it works. I also have had several face to face conversations with Erik and know he does care. No one is in comics for the money, because there is no money in comics. They do it because they love it. Variant covers and whatnots are a means to an end.
I guess his posts around here are no indication that he cares, right? Asking for suggestions, answering questions (however idiotic or repetative at times) and taking an overall interest in any and all feedback from people on all sorts of forums (not just this one). Hell, they even kept the story close to the cannon and asked which backup artists people wanted to see…Yeah, he couldn’t care less…
Lemme get this straight…So it’s okay for Marvel to merchandise everything because hey, they’re Marvel, they’re bigger?
What kind of logic is that? Smaller press companies aren’t allowed to make money because YOU say so?
The StreetFighter property IS pretty big and widely known, people on here have posted about wanting posters and statues and other various items. But Udon is supposed to not capitalize on the demand because they’re a smaller company than Marvel?
Now here’s a question: why would Udon go out of their way to keep a comic going that’s not making them a lot of profit? They don’t care, as you say, so why?
And yeah…every book that fails, does so because it sucks, not because it’s underexposed or underfunded or anything like that…
Just like me? Like me what? Are you in my house? Do you know how many of any issue I buy? Newsflash genius: I get one cover of whatever book, THE ONE I LIKE! :wow:
Again: What’s it to you what I spend my money on? Is this affecting you? Did I ruin your day because I own 2 copies of the same comic? Get over yourself.
Better at what? Making points? I think I’ve made my case pretty clear. You’re whining and crying about shit that has NOTHING to do with you. Complaining because someone has the option of buying a different cover or a mini bust. That kind of shit is typical of whiney assed messageboard cliches.
What exactly IS your point? That companies should only do business by YOUR standards?
I’m betting Erik knows the terms of the contract with Capcom, and judging from Udon’s ability to produce SF merchandise, I’m thinking they got more than just “make a comic” rights. But it doesn’t matter what he says…
Yep, memo to all small presses out there, Captain Nobody on a messageboard says “No t-shirts, no buttons, no statues, no posters, just comics.” Branching out to other mediums is a huge no-no.
Someone must not have signed your X-Men comic when you were 5 or something. I wonder if you actually listen to yourself.
It honestly doesn’t keep me up at night wondering if some comic studio or gaming company can single me out from Joe Schmoe Consumer.
I’m real sorry you’re all wrapped up in what everyone else is doing.
You’re right, though. You are a waste of time.
Eh, I sort of like my choice of covers. I seldom if ever get both. Can’t afford that and my other books, too.
What other things has Udon “cashed in” on that wasn’t the comic, anyway? I know there was that bigass guidebook translated from Japan, but man, I’m in no way going to fault them for that one. Besides which, they probably needed/wanted a translated copy to go by for their own purposes, and decided to share. Nothing wrong with funding your venture that way. Everyone who takes part wins. Unless they don’t want to take part, and do anyway, which sounds like the case of Nortlee.
I’m guessing obsessive-compulsive buyer there. He wants the stuff, he knows he shouldn’t, but he can’t help himself. And rather than look inward at the problem, he lashes out at those receiving his money, and those who support them.
And, I bet he’ll come back on here, blasting us for sucking up to Udon and me especially for “acting like a shrink, trying to get inside his head.” Or, barring that, he’ll laugh a bit and/or act like he’s not bothered at all, and maybe tell us to all go fuck ourselves before leaving, to pop back in later and see what we’ve been saying in his absence.
Don’t worry, Nortlee. No one is out to get you. 
LBD “Nytetrayn”
PS: 'Cept maybe them.
Hey Nort,
You should be proud, coz everyone should know that I rarely respond to flamings like this. But you take the effort to make long posts and arguements about it, and I feel that is only fair if I reply you the same as a respect to your dedication in this SF Comic forum.
Why do we work? Coz we have to make a living. Making the SF comic is part of our work. Making SF products is also part of our work. We just so happen to be excited about our work. Too bad you have to feel that it is wrong.
We put out the SF comic to make money. Plain and simple. I will never deny it. But along that road, we also care, as huge SF fans ourselves, if we are doing a good job or not. We do 2 regular variants coz one if from our own UDON atists, and one is by the guest artist that did the back up story. Most guests want to take a crack on the cover too. It is not like we are just doing a variant cover that has nothing to do with the interiors. You don’t even know how many times there are artists that just want to do a cover and I have to turn them down coz I really cannot use them that often…
The Powerfoil is like a premium incentive item. It is a limited chase for the serious collectors. Something fun, something cool. Again, plain and simple. It is your choice to buy which ever one, none of them or all of them. We never force anyone (including the retailers) to buy them all. Unlike other companies that offers their chase covers unless you order 25 copies of the regular covers, we just offers ours for sale individually. It is an option for the customers, not a compulsary thing.
Yes, we are putting out busts and posters too. And SOTA is making figures and we help them on packaging. Score will be putting out the trading card game and we are doing the art on those too. Nuby’s controllers, we have a pretty big part in it. Honestly, Capcom is the one company that I feel is the BEST to work with, as they are very open to different ideas of merchandising and they encourage their licensees to work together, to grow together. They do care about the quality of stuff we are putting out, coz from the licensing manager in Japan, to the licensing agent in USA to the individual licensees, we all grew up playing SF and other Capcom games and that is why we are loving our jobs. If you fail to see where we are all coming from and just think that we are here to make your money, then it is up to you to buy whatever you feel like. You are welcome to raise your concerns but how you are doing this is on the blind and insulting end, not only to me, but also to all SF partners that is working together, and thus in return, you are only insulting yourself.
Oh, by the way, yes, we are very evil. Coz Street Fighter Month is on the way… (hee hee… more to come… soon…)
To those who has been supportive - I dare to say this on behalf of Capcom and all licensees: We know that there are a lot of different “options” out there on the shelves. And we appreciate you sticking with Street Fighter and supporting our products over the other stuff. Thanks!!!
Wow, northlee is an idiot.
No, I’d rather say, he is a guy with a different vision.
Not really…just a dick. And so’s apathy. wtf is up with insulting TimeStop, who’s not even part of this argument.
aaaanyway.
Although northlee was a complete asshole to Erik, he did bring up some valid points. None of us would have known what was up with the BB deal or the relationship with Udon/Capcom.
Although i’ve every issue of SF, DS, and the firs CB I do not own any two of the same issues, be it variant of foil, so just maybe i can see this from both points of view.
I have absolutely NO problem with there being 2 or 7 variants to any particular issue, because almost every time one is cooler than the other so you get a choice between two cool covers. My concern here is with the PRICE of the foils. I love the comic, and i LOVE sf, but i’m NEVER paying over $10 for a comic…ever. This makes me sad because i’ve liked every single foil and would love to have them all…
Why make them so unaccesible to the not-so die-hard fans?
My other, more important concern is the merchandising. Although i know nothing of the goings-on at UDON HQ, i can’t help but wonder if all these extra projects are getting in the way of what, in my opinion is THE main project at udon: The Street Fighter comic.
Why is it that we get sf issues once every three months if we are lucky? I’d much prefer to have no busts, and no action figures if we were to get the sf comic in at least a regular schedule, never mind once a month…
The posters so far have been amazing, although a BITCH to find, and the ever elusive SFEC has been a dissapointment so far because i CAN’T get my hands on it, but other than that, i’d prefer merchandising to support the comic, not take it’s place, thank you.
Another thing that has always irked me (since the begining actually) is the Con-exclusive issues. You can make 17 different covers for the people who can and will go to the cons, but DONT fuck the rest of us over by not releasing these issues for sale at the stands…IMO, it’s a big FUCK YOU to the casual fan, i.e. ME!.
Well, before i come off as even more of a dick, i’d like to say that as far as content and dedication to the fans, i see no problems with the way Udon has handled things, and if making more money will help the quality of the book, then by all means knock yourselves out…your business really isn’t any of our business.