NRAMA: As you mentioned, youre a little more than just a licensee to Capcom can you explain your relationship with them in a little more detail?
EK: UDON has really been lucky to forge such a great relationship with a licensor like Capcom. While we still are a licensee, our working relationship with Capcom has grown very close over recent years. Theres a certain level of trust there that is really rare, I think. Obviously they wouldnt have hired us for the Evolution game if there wasnt. We are now more like close partners in promoting the Street Fighter brand.
NRAMA: How much of the design work does UDON do for Capcom these days? They have their own acclaimed in-house artists and design staff, but your art seems to be showing up on a lot of products as well
EK: As I have said before, our relationship with Capcom has morphed into more than just a licensing relationship. Throughout the last 2 years, we visited Capcom Japan, and the Japanese artists of Capcom have also visited San Diego Con. We got to meet with those artists like Kinu Nishimura, Shoei, Ikeno, Shinkiro, and Edayan, who we worshipped as fans ourselves, and they are very helpful in giving us guidance in our creative development. They now become our mentor, which we feel honored that they would treat us like friends. And they have been kind enough to try us out on projects like Capcom Fighting Jam/Evolution, and Darkstalkers PSP. Right now, we are constantly talking to them on other possible projects, including cover art and maybe some design works.
NRAMA: Does your licensee plus relationship with Capcom translate into more autonomy when it comes to what goes into the Street Fighter storyline?
Ken Siu-Chong: The story is basically an amalgamation of the storylines from the Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter II storylines, so while there are many elements from the official SF canon, it differs in many respects. This was a conscious decision right from the get-go since we knew that taken as-is, the official storyline wouldnt work as a comic without changes. Reiterating what Erik was saying, we really are lucky to have built up such a level of trust between a huge company like CAPCOM and a tiny one like us. Of course there was an initial feeling out period when we first started off, but CAPCOM really liked what we were doing and where we were taking the story. They basically told us that they trusted us and as long as the story was true to the characters, we could do what we wanted in the story since it was outside of the videogame series continuitywe could essentially create our own continuity. With that said, we knew since the beginning that we wouldnt be straying too far from the official storyline since we know that is what the fans wanted to see. So no, were not going to behead Ken or have Ryu and Chun-Li
how should I put it?
NRAMA: Delicately.
KS-C: Making babies!
