Street Fighter II #1

Sep 1994. Cover price 95p.
40 pages. Full colour.
Manga Publishing Ltd.

New! Explosive Manga Action!

Edited by Cefn Ridout.

Cover by Masaomi Kanzaki, finished art by Lea Hernandez, colouring by Koto Color.
r: UNKNOWN.

Free pack of Merlin Street Fighter II stickers.

Contents:

 2 Win the Best Ever Beat-'Em-Up in the Known Universe competition.

 3 Street Fighter II Battle 01: Shad w: Masaomi Kanzaki, translated by William Flanagan; a: Masaomi Kanzaki, lettering and finished art by Lea Hernandez, colouring by Koto Color. / Indicia

r: UNKNOWN.

 4 Ryu (one fifth page) fact file.

 6 Ken (one fifth page) fact file.

 8 Guile (one fifth page) fact file.

10 Zangief (one fifth page) fact file.

12 Dhalsim (one fifth page) fact file.

14 Blanka (one fifth page) fact file.

16 E. Honda (one fifth page) fact file.

18 Chun-Li (one fifth page) fact file.

19 Akira - Countdown to Doomsday! in-house advertisement for Manga Mania.

20 Street Fighter II poster 1 (of 8); a: Masaomi Kanzaki, finished art by Lea Hernandez, colouring by Koto Color.

r: UNKNOWN.

22 The Raptors Are Back! in-house advertisement for Jurassic Park.

23 Street Fighter II Battle 02: Little Las Vegas w: Masaomi Kanzaki, translated by William Flanagan; a: Masaomi Kanzaki, lettering and finished art by Lea Hernandez, colouring by Koto Color.

r: UNKNOWN.

24 Balrog (one fifth page) fact file.

26 Vega (one fifth page) fact file.

28 Sagat (one fifth page) fact file.

30 M. Bison (one fifth page) fact file.

32 Po-Lin (one fifth page) fact file.

34 Wong-Mi (one fifth page) fact file.

36 Gouken (one fifth page) fact file.

38 Next Month: Chun-Li Vs Blanka (one fifth page)

39 The Official Super Street Fighter II Sticker Collection advertisement.

40 The Guyver Bio-Booster Armour in-house advertisement for videocassette.

The cover art isn't inspiring. It isn't a bad image, its simply not as engaging as the game this is derived from; especially annoying being the placement of Balrog against a yellow background - he barely registers at a glance. The logo reads fine, however, which is a slight relief.

Sticker albums used to be given away with titles every so often, but Manga isn't from that tradition. A free pack graces the cover, with a voucher inside for a free sticker album, along with another pack of stickers - how difficult would it have been to simply bag a copy with this issue? To be faced with a decision of cutting the comic or handing over sixty pence, I'm sure more than a handful of readers will have spent extra money. It's a slightly mean trick to play.

The first thing to note about the translation of Street Fighter II is text pieces below each page, which takes some getting used to. While I have no idea if this was present in the original, it feels distracting. It is different, and I'm not sure how to approach it - do I read the comic material first, then come back and read through supplementary material, or do I proceed page-by-page? Without introductory text, this question is left for readers to decide.

"The man-made island of Shad." An island built in cooperation with the international conglomerates of the seven industrialized nations of the world.

Its completion marked the cornerstone of a plan for a new world economy. But, because of a world financial panic, the stock markets crashed, and Shad was left to fend for itself.

All that was left in Shad were the scavengers who were trying to get rich in the gold rush and Shad became a lawless slum.

There was one thing all in Shad could enjoy, and the new game became the lifeblood of the island.

Street fighting: men who sold their souls for one-on-one combat!

This island, which could have been the center of new technology, keeps its balance by using the oldest power of all!

Six pages of comic strip to get to the first moment of action makes the story seem padded out. The entire story collected here feels, if not slow-paced, at least unbalanced, not helped by the low number of panels on each page. It is difficult enough to replicate the immediacy of video games on paper, but when done like in a manner such as this is off-putting.

The double-page spread on page 34 wastes an incredible amount of page space, with its white background emphasising how poorly the available space has been utilised. While I would have preferred some features on the game, or on the previous year's action figures, this issue's focus on the strip is admirable. Had it been given a better presentation then my concerns might have been assuaged.