Hi. David got me this book a while back now, and I have been wanting to write about it for ages. While the main focus is art from Street Fighter II, the book starts with Street Fighter and before it ends up at Street Fighter IV it covers Street Fighter Alpha, Final Fight, the X-Men/Marvel vs. Street Fighter/Capcom series, the Capcom vs. SNK games and even goes into the professional EVO fighting tournaments and Chun-Li cosplay. But as I said, it’s main focus is art from Street Fighter II, and that is where this book excels. It surely includes the promo art for every character in every iteration of SFII, tonnes of concept and design pieces, and every single group shot I can ever recall seeing.
It takes in every style: The dorky and awkward original portraits before the fighters personalities had been properly defined. The boldly-lined block colour pictures where all the characters are “attacking” the canvas from Street Fighter II Turbo (you can tell it’s Turbo because everyone is in their alternate colour by default). The younger and wilder anime-style illustrations from the Alpha series. The grittier, more angular style from Street Fighter III. It also very briefly features some of the captivating sumi-e art from Street Fighter IV, with ink flying everywhere. The book also includes a lot of fan-art and art by non-Capcom artists, a neat way of showing the vast ocean of people who love and are inspired by the imaginative characters of the series.
My only problem with the book is that it is a little bit scattershot. I would’ve preferred the artworks to be more organised – via game, artist or character, for example. But to be honest, it is such a small, meaningless complaint, as by browsing through the book, you are encountering art you would not necessarily expect, or be seeking.
Now, enough of the book itself. It finally put names to the artists who drew these amazing pictures of the characters I have loved for twenty years, so it’s time for me to gush like a silly little fanboy and praise them to bits. Here are three of my favourite Street Fighter artists, with a brief description of their art-style.
Shinkiro
First on the list is the one I least associate with Street Fighter, to be honest. Shinkiro gave the covers of SNK’s fighting games their distinctive look for years before he ever officially drew a Ryu. He has a certain way of rendering faces with what appears to be an airbrush, which makes the work immediately stand out as his, and when he did eventually draw a Ryu, it was for Capcom vs. SNK. He handled the Capcom characters, while Kinu Nishimura gave the SNK characters a more Capcom feel. Shinkiro also gave Tatsunoko vs. Capcom his unique treatment.
Kinu Nishimura
Kinu was responsible for the very graphic comic-book styled block-colour portraits from Street Fighter II Turbo I mentioned earlier. Her style later evolved into a looser sketch style, with a watercolour look to it – the rippling torso muscles of Joe Higashi from Capcom vs. SNK stick in my head for some reason. Kinu also gave us the memorable Street Fighter III “Continue?” screens, and I’m sure she also illustrated the Cannon Spike videogame – the illustrations of Cammy from that game are almost unmistakable.
Bengus (or CMRK)
If I had to pick, and it was acceptable to pick one overall winner out of all these fantastic artists, then Bengus would be that winner. Early on there was just an indescribable something – Was it the epic frowns and spikey eyebrows that he gave the characters he drew? Darkstalkers and Street Fighter Alpha were unquestionably “his” games in terms of art direction. His illustrations of the characters matched the art in-game, with their big hands and feet, a trait that became so ingrained in the visual identity of Street Fighter, it has passed on to Street Fighter IV. Bengus also gave the promo art for the vs. series it’s unique look – there was always something so mad about seeing Captain America and Wolverine in a Manga style.
I will write more about another of my favourites, Ikeno, another time. For now, here are some sample images from these utter legends.
