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Artist's commentary
East vs. West
Fighting game gals from both sides of the globe about to duke it out in a back alley.
Chun-Li (Street Fighter) and Mai (King of Fighters/Fatal Fury) rep the East while Sonya Blade (Mortal Kombat) and B. Orchid (Killer Instinct) team up for the West.
This was fun for a number of reasons.
One, it's been quite a while since I put this much time into a piece that heavily features finished lineart.
Two, I had to decide whom to include. Chun-Li was the only obvious choice. Mai was fairly easy to include once I gave it some thought. Sonya was a strained choice just from within the Mortal Kombat series—I feel like even though she got her own game 15 years ago, Kitana might be the more recognizable femme fatale from that series; ultimately stuck with American Sonya to contrast her with China- and Japan-hailing Chun-Li and Mai. Orchid was the toughest overall choice because… I had a tough time trying to think of Western-developed fighting games beyond MK. When I couldn't really come up with any other iconic series/female characters, I assumed that meant that Killer Instinct's Orchid was the right choice for the final spot.
In general it was just fun working with designs I've gotten accustomed to over the last 25 years.
The Street Fighter series is the only one that I'm really attached to. I'm not hardcore enough for King of Fighters… haha! Mortal Kombat was always lousy to me outside of the taboo violence at the time it originally came out. And Killer Instinct was just… blugh. Working on Orchid was probably my least favorite part of this one—her outfit is dumb and I don't get it.
Anyway, who's your pick for the fight? Or who would you have included?