And now for the second part of our interview with Street Fighter X G.I. Joe writer Aubrey Sitterson!
Round 2: Fight!
CraveOnline: Will you flashback at some point and tell us how the characters joined the tournament?
Aubrey Sitterson: Nope! I’ve seen this question some already, with fans wanting to know from each character’s first appearance why they’re competing in the World Warrior tournament, and to those fans I would advise…patience. I know some readers might be used to the very staid, conservative comics approach of laying absolutely everything out for you from jump street, but again: We’re trying something different, better and smarter with this book. Give it time and it’s definitely going to pay off in a big, big way.
We’ve got six issues of head-busting, bone-cracking, hadoken-throwing fights planned for you, and I promise that as we go along, you’ll learn the differing motivations for each of our sixteen combatants. In fact, if you read issue #1 closely, you’ll find some very telling hints and clues as to what’s really going on with this World Warrior tournament.
Did you ever see the Street Fighter G. I. Joe action figures? And are you going to sneak in a reference to those?
Of course! Not only do I remember them coming out, but if you look in the comments section of absolutely every interview I’ve done for this series, someone pops in to bring them up!
That said, I don’t plan on making any reference to them. While we intend to give fans of Street Fighter exactly what they want, and more importantly, exactly what they didn’t even know they wanted, I’m not interested in pandering to them with out-and-out nostalgia-based fan-service. Yes, this is a chance to see your favorite characters fighting one another, but it’s also, above all else, a good story, and everything works in service of that.
What’s your ultimate dream match between the two franchises?
With everything working in service of the story – not just my personal preferences as a fan – I didn’t even get to write my ultimate dream match! As much as I would have loved to see the savage, brutal, electricity-generating Blanka go head-to-head with the silent, graceful ninjutsu of Snake Eyes, it just didn’t fit into the story that we were telling, and it would have done a disservice to the narrative to just shoehorn it in there. Though Blanka didn’t make it into our final sixteen combatants, he does make an appearance in the backmatter, where I detail the qualifying rounds for the tournament. Fingers crossed that he does better in the next one…
Tell us about the work of your artist Emilio Laiso and colorist David Garcia Cruz. What’s the best page they’ve delivered so far?
They’re absolutely amazing. If you’re only familiar with Emilio from his work on Hack/Slash, you are going to be blown away by what he’s doing on this project. Truly, he’s the perfect guy for the book. Not only is he able to hit the Capcom style without ever feeling slavish to it, but he has a preternatural ability to use fight scenes to convey character and emotion. This is crucial to the approach and format of the series, and if we weren’t fortunate enough to have a guy like Emilio on art, the book just simply wouldn’t work.
As for David…he’s another name that you are going to be seeing a lot from in the future. Again, his approach is perfectly suited for this project – major props to Editor Carlos Guzman for casting this book as well as he did – as his colors are deliciously vibrant, lending the entire book the feel of the most outrageous, bombastic Ultra Combo imaginable. And what’s more, David is shockingly talented when it comes to using color not just to fill in the blanks between lines, but to, again, convey character and emotion. His is about as far as you can get from a “coloring book” approach to comics.
As for favorite pages…There’s a lot to like in issue #1, and some absolutely stunning panels and sequences. My favorite though, is page 19, during the Ryu vs. Jinx fight. There’s a really beautiful and effective symmetry to Emilio’s layout, and David brought some color choices that perfectly play up how tense the moment is. In issue #2, I love page 3, during the Guile vs. Gung-Ho fight, as it features one of my all-time favorite wrestling moves, and page 10, which holds a surprise that absolutely no one is going to see coming.
What other projects are you working on?
Every single Tuesday, I post a brand-new episode of SKALD, my ongoing, sword & sorcery serial. It’s a heavy, violent, brutal, psychedelic, metal-infused spoken word narrative. I write a new chapter every single week – about 30-40 minutes – and then I record it in one, single, flawless take. It’s available on iTunes, Stitcher and at skald.podomatic.com.
Every Thursday and immediately after WWE pay-per-views, wrestling fans should check out my talk show STRAIGHT SHOOT, available on iTunes, Stitcher and at youtube.com/c/straightshoot. It’s a smart, fun, positive look at professional wrestling, where myself, prominent independent wrestlers, comedians, musicians, actors and writers-about-wrestling weigh in on what we liked and why.
And comics-wise…nothing’s announced just yet. I’ve got a few things in the hopper – things that I’m absolutely dying to talk about – but my publishers would be furious if I spilled the beans on them this early. Keep those eyes peeled!
Tease the second issue for us: what match ups await in the next round?
Issue #2 sees the continuation of the eighth finals, which means we get the following amazing match-ups: It’s Air Force vs Marines, Officer vs. Enlisted Man in Guile vs. Gung-Ho; Dan doing the best he can in the face of Chun-Li’s devastating kicks; a Cobra vs Cobra showdown between Storm Shadow and Croc Master; and a brutal grudge match between M. Bison and his clone and former slave, Cammy. And beyond that? I can’t say anything without spoiling the results of this round!
Street Figther X G.I. Joe # 2 will be released on Wednesday, March 30. You can follow Sitterson on twitter @aubreysitterson and on his official site, aubreysitterson.com.
