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OK. I saw what has gone down in the last 48 hhours so I decide to come back here one more post to make a few points clear:

VERY FIRST THING - I PMed a few of you explaining why I am leaving, and said I will still be active on other places like SFDFORUM.COM. It is by no means asking you to ditch SRK and just go to SFD. I just said we can keep talking in other places even I am not posting on this board. There is no tug of war whatsoever between the sites.

As for people saying I leave SRK becoz I cannot take criticizm, no, you are wrong. I deal with the publishing and I also deal with clients every day. Clients that are far pickier and way less reasonable with changes and requests. Case in point, the latest Star Wars Insiders Magazine has this Obi-wan Kenobi cover done by us and it has about 20 revisions in 2 weeks. I am fine with any comments as long as by the end, there is a mutual respect between the 2 parties.

I leave here because I felt that some recent posts has been very very out of line. The trigger is the Cammy Cos play thread that really disgussted me. I lost respect to a lot of the people posting on that post with their distasteful sexual comments. Do not tell me that is humor, coz humor can only be used as an excuse to a certain point and what happened is way out of line. And it happened right here in the SF Comic forum! We linked SRK as one of the discussioin furoms from our site, and this is what I am asking people to come here to read?

The flaming on RS #1 and then some on SF just have me made up my mind to stop posting here.

Doing a book in B/W and we were called “CHEAP”. Working as hard as well can while maintaining a break even point every month in a constantly struggling market dominated by the big guys is an uphill battle. While we do our best to answer to all your questions and comments, we just cannot please every single person’s request. Ultimately, I know as well as any other of you here does, that we all have some pre-perceived story, values, ideas, direction, that we wanna see how the future of SF and other Capcom stuff goes. We have a lot of stuff planned and scrapped and need to re-plan and change coz events just pops up unexpectedly and we need to adapt.

Why can’t Alvin do a book a month? Have you seen his dedication to quality lately? He saw you guys’ post regarding series 1’s quality, and he sets out to make sure that he will give you guys the best he can. And him being a perfectionist, he is spending more and more time polishing a page to a point that I cannot even convince him to stop. He is putting so much pressure on himself just because HE CARES ABOUT YOUR FEEDBACK. This is not to say that you guys are to be blamed, but this also shows that whatever you post, we do take it seriousely.

That is why the flaming posts really gets to me. From day one, I have stated that I can take comments, and constructive criticism. But there is a very fine line drawn between that and “bitch posts”. I mean, how the comments are presented and how it is read and taken by the reader can totally swing a post from “constructive comments” to “flamin bitching”. I normally take every post as a criticism to start, unless it is blatently “You SUCK” and those I tends to ignore. But more and more so, I really have to start detaching myself a bit more coz it is really affecting my work and I become a little obsessed in checking here every hour to see if any of you has something to say.

While I really wanna make sure I take notes and answer to every one’s request, I also realized that I cannot do so in a lot of times. Some of you make comments based on a fans stand point and becoz you do not understand the nature of the business, you will not know that what you are asking is just not possible. An example - every one wanted me to go to Marvel and do a X-Men VS SF crossover. I want it too! But Marvel is just not interested. What can I do? Every one wanted us to continue with DS. I do too! But DS made us lost 6000 dollars per issue, and after 6 issues, we are 30 thousand dollars in the hole. The alternative is to find a team that cost less, but that also means the quality is gonna suck and I just do not want to see that.

Why is RS in BW and why is Rey doing it? Why is it 4.95? I explained it a while ago and I will say it again - RS has far less fan base than Darkstalkers. If DS cannot work for us in color, I am sure RS will not be able to make it. DS we sets out being a color book and Alvin sets the bar to how it looks. If we are to continue, it only makes sense if we can do something competible. Or else, I am sure we will get more bitching. With RS, we feel we can establish this franchise in a totally different direction. Artist wise, we cannot clone Alvin or Arnold (tell me immediately if anyone knows how to!), and our last venture with Omar doing the Summer Special resulted in mixed feedback that makes us feel skeptical. And also, the production cost on color is just too high to justify a break even point. The BW Manga market is growing. Rey’s style is energetic and unique that we really feel we can capture the essence of the RS game even without 100% following the art style. That is why we take a chance to do it this way. You guys always said SF’s fight scenes are too short. Because of production constraints, VS time, VS page count, VS pricing, we cannot really change the module of how we are putting out SF. But we feel that we can do something different with RS so we make it 40 pages of art but we have to raise the price to 4.95. These are all the elements that we have to do to justify making the book. I mean, yeah, we can just trash the project altogether, but do you rather want to see a book or no books? I am sure the people who has enjoyed it so far would say yes. For the nay sayer, I did not point a gun on your head to force you to keep buying it. But please at I feel that we do deserve some respect on jumping thru hoops and hurdles to at least try.

I will be honest with you. When I first come here, I believe we can grow together as a community. We can make SF bigger and stronger. We can go out and tell people how good the SF fandom is, how strong we are. The more I am here, the more I found that I am spending time a LOT of time typing messages similar to this one to explain to the ones that just will never understand the nature of how things are run from a business stand point. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I will never be able to meet their expectations. So I decide to just stop, at least for the moment. I need to go back and concentrate on work. Maybe kick Alvin more to stop being anal and move onto the next page. Go out to see if I can find the next Alvin or Arnold to help production. Work with Omar ti improve his skills so that he will get you guys “seal of approvals” on his upcoming SF mini series… etc etc.

Again, thank you for all that supports us in the past, present, and future. To those who thinks I am childish, a fool, or an idiot, sorry that I do not meet your expectation.

2

Once I started reading Rival Schools, the story engrossed me that I forgot it was in black and white, well not completely but you know. The story was involving and I’m looking forward to the next issue.

The only complaints I have about the artwork is that some of it looks rushed. Maybe someone can explain why the page where Kyosuke says “Hmm… Looks like this Batsu kid is the real deal…” doesn’t look finished? His head is just mostly blank. Whatever effect was trying to be achieved, I just don’t think it worked.

I also don’t like the artwork that has body parts in solid black. Take the next page after the one I just mentioned - Batsu did a shoulder barge into Hayato. Batsu’s right leg being completely black is fine, its understandable. But his and Hayato’s head too? That just doesn’t work, in my opinion. And Batsu’s head when he’s charging up his burning vigor… thats got to be the worst part of all the art in the comic. The rest of his body is fine, its just his head! Agh!

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Thanks for the detailed explanation Udoneko. Best of luck.

5

The tug of war thing I said was just how I felt at the time and was a joke, I did not mean to imply that both forums were at war or something, sorry about that. :sweat:

Best of luck in whatever you do in the future.

6

First off, I haven’t been following this board as closely as I was before, but…

Way to go, SRK. Waaaaaayyyy toooooo goooooo…

We finally get a US SF property that’s somewhat GOOD (at least enjoyable) and a chief of AN ENTIRE COMIC STUDIO and you chase him off. Wonderful.

I’ve never been prouder to be associated with such fine gentlemen as yourselves.

Anyway…

  • Sorry you felt you had to go, but SRK is filled with rampaging idiots. For your sanity, it was probably best.

  • Darkstalkers cancelled? Well, it’s not like the Capcom comics were going to last forever. I mean if TRANSFORMERS can’t last for 3 years, then what chance does Street Fighter have? (significantly less and Darkstalkers and Rival Schools you can forget about.)

  • RS in B/W? Can’t say I’m not disappointed, but it makes sense since if you ask 99.7% of the world what Rival Schools is and they say “What?” (0.2% think it’s an indie punk band. Which it is, they took their name from the game)

  • Most of the US stopped caring about Street Fighter when Mortal Kombat came out. “Duh, MK is better because it has blood. SF is for weenies.” Tell me you didn’t hear that all over in 1995…

  • Personally, I’d drop doing RS as a monthly and release it in a manga-style paperback (probably a looser schedule and a better chance of getting whole storylines out there.) Really push SF’s schedule to keep it out there (you’re losing readers because you’re taking too long. That’s why I dropped Transformers v.3 back in the day.) and perhaps get the license for Mega Man.

  • As for criticisms: Okay, I’ll admit that I don’t like Adam Warren’s art style. I just don’t agree with it. Also Salvador Larocca to an extent. Other than that, I think that I’ve been very respectful with my criticisms. I realized that you didn’t have to do what you did (and now you’re not anymore) and I tried to be as polite as I could.

Anyway, this is SRK: of course most of the people are fucking rude.

Best of luck, UDON!!!

I want more SF and Rival Schools (and Darkstalkers if ya got it…)

7

Maybe im not reading the right posts in the thread but I really don’t know where all the “flaming” took place. Most of the stuff I read was just “when is the next issue coming out?!!??!”

What you just described, Udon, is a common addiction that some people feel towards forums. You get so tied into a forum that it begins to rule your life. Just look at Myspace and what it does to people…(what it does to me even…)

But I think part of the reason why so many people are so vocal about things is when it comes down to it many of us (me included) are uber nerds when it comes to Street Fighter. We are the equivalent of Star Trek geeks. So many people will complain, fuss, and get angry over simple things. Its just the nature of having a strong passion for something.

But while some of us may be hard to deal with, we’ll still be first in line to buy your new books when they come out. We’ll still be there pestering our retailers for Street Fighter. If it wasn’t for Street Fighter, I wouldn’t have even stepped foot in a comic store. Now because of you guys’ work, I now collect other books too. I’ve become a comic geek because of Street Fighter… but thats OK.

Take the time off, do what you need to do to get a book out, and know that while people here may be hard to deal with, we’ll still buy the book. I think all anyone asks for is a respectable and honest release date. Sometimes people think you are playing them for fools when you not only miss your release date but miss it by a month. People start thinking you think they are idiots which begins the bad vibe which leads to other complaints they wouldn’t normally say anything about.

If you need to do a bi-monthly book, cool do it. Just let the fans know so they aren’t pounding on your door every week asking “is it out yet? is it out yet?”

8

I think releasing Street Fighter: Legends along with the Street Fighter title is a good idea as it firstly provides a new story to a favourite character to alot as well as, hopefully, providing an SF book to fill in the wait for the next main SF issue as long as Omar has a good lead time to knock out a few of the issues before the first is released. I actually enjoyed seeing Omar’s art when he did the Capcom Summer Special, it looked very close to Capcom’s source material.

udoneko, thanks for the explanation for everything and not just your departure on here. I and most of us here did not realise the unfortunate loss accumulated with the release of DS and I understand the route taken for RS.

9

I wonder who said he was childish??? :angel: I think its just silly for you to take some of these SRK bullet butts serious… First and foremost ALVIN YOUR A GREAT ARTIST, I LOVE YOUR WORK seriously i realllly do and if erik over there doesn’t tell you i said that grrrr to him!!!

lol but all in all I have been following this board for you to take offense to what a '“COUPLE”, people say about RS comic is silly most people don’t see the art and the amount creativity that was involved in it, all they see is “oh its black&white tsss must be crap”, which a couple of are srk users use 1% of their brain soooo don’t take it to heart its like telling a blind man to see.

Bye mr.ko :frowning:

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sucks you feel that way e-ko… i’ve been posting here a while and i get my share of jabs, believe you me, but you grow to appreciate this place and its people as if they are your annoying brother/cousin… you gotta it’s a necessary evil…

i believe the reason why people tend to be so critical on these boards (ie RS B&W issue & hard SF criticisim) is because, obviously, SF is something that means a lot to us all, whether it’s because it’s our favorite form of entertainment, or it’s been an inspiration or for whatever reason, i’m sure we, as well as any die hard fan, will greatly scrutinize anything street fighter, not because we want to tear things down, but because we wanna see it develop and grow…

anyways, you really don’t have to explain yourself to anyone, just do what you gotta do, i’m sure people will still buy the book

… good luck and

PS- greatly anticpating the Omar Dogan project… he’s probably my favorite artist of the Udon crew!

11

I can sympathize, but at the sametime i’m sad that you need to leave.

(Some of the stuff i wanted to say i deleted it because it comes off too kiss-up.)

As man in your position you have a tall glass to fill. if its gets in way of way of work, you don’t need to post here all the time, however some of us need to be updated on whats going on from time to time.

I don’t know what i’m saying, because i don’t judge the method of how it gets done 'cause then i’d complain all the time like some people on the forum.

I’m so in betweeen:sweat: sigh…

12

Good Shit Udon.

13

god, please don’t listen to this ohayo guy
i’ve seen him ruin perfectly good threads in nearly every forum on srk.
please just STFU man!

sorry you guys (Udon) have to go.
best of luck in the future…

14

Ummm why would a guy at Udon let a bunch of pimply faced dorks from SRK bother him so much?

If you can’t take criticism you’ll never make it in any business.

Grow up.

Besides alot of people here show praise for your work. The people that criticize ur work are the people who buy it, so they have that right.

But if you want to go to some crappy watered down forum where everyone will sit around and suck your dick, go for it.

15

Exactly, to me it seems your making a move from naysayers to yessayers. Noone there will have the stones to critique your work, and if they do they will be shot down by your cockriding guard of fantards.

16

I partially agree with the previous 2 posts. But there are some who do post criticism’s there.

Oh, and do NOT get Megaman! Just DON’T do it! That is a terrible idea. If Udon can’t even manage SF, DS, RS, Exalted properly do you really think they’ll handle Megaman? I’m not even a MM fan, but it’d be best for Udon to not acquire anymore licenses for the time being. It costs too much money as well. Too much money + not really being able to hand 4 other licenses just wont work for a new, fifth license.

Lastly, I’m not surprised Udon came back for anaother post. Not. Surprised. At. All.

17

Exactly, thats why we need Udon to post a poll on their website asking fans how are they doing with the SF series. Do they like the storyline, do they like the character developments, fight scenes, art work, etc??? but poll along wont work cause all those SF fans could just bias too and say their doing a good job. But like thats going to happen, but if it does, then hopefully everybody will give honest opinions. :rofl:

18

I feel incredibly sad for some reason.

See you around, Erik. Don’t listen to a couple of anal retentive geeks. Most if us are still very much in love with what you’re doing with the Street Fighter license. You guys are the only ones, along with SOTA, that is keeping it alive…

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No, it is the FANS that are keeping it alive.

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Yeah, we are… In our own little individual gaming rooms and on a few message boards. But if it weren’t from Udon and Sota, there would be no Street Fighter related stuff for us to enjoy.

Udon has a bunch of very talented artists who happen to be drawing my favorite video game characters, who aren’t even supported anymore by the very company that created them. I would be very sad to see it go under.

I know I’m not the only one.