We had the chance to chat with Matt Moylan, Director of Publishing at UDON Entertainment. Final battle #1 on stands and the 2024 Street Fighter & Friends Swimsuit Special #1, it seemed like a good time to check in and talk about all things UDON.
Nintendojo (ND): Could you please explain to our readers your role at UDON Entertainment? How long has UDON been around?
Matt Moylan (MM): I’m Matt Moylan, Director of Publishing at UDON Entertainment. UDON has been around since 2000, when it started as a creative services studio. UDON did art for other comic companies. Then in 2003, the studio acquired the Street Fighter comic license from Capcom and became a publisher itself. I personally have been with UDON since 2006.
ND: We’ve been huge fans of UDON here almost from the beginning. UDON’s adaptations of Street Fighter as well as the localizations of some classic Street Fighter manga drew us to you. What was it like in the early days when you were looking for Capcom to license its characters? How did that relationship come about?
MM: Since UDON was not yet a publisher, we initially proposed to other publishers the idea of acquiring the Street Fighter license and having UDON do the writing and design. But nobody wanted to acquire the rights because SF was pretty inactive at the time. That was four years after Street Fighter III: 3rd Strikeand five years earlier Street Fighter IVSo Erik Ko (UDON boss) personally contacted Capcom with the help of licensing agent Mark Mostman and was able to secure the license. UDON has now owned the Street Fighter comic license for over 20 years.
ND: How did you recruit some of the talent that UDON worked with in the beginning? From Jo Chen to Alvin Lee, the artistic quality of the company was always outstanding.
MM: Most talent comes to UDON simply by submitting their art, either directly or through friends who already work with us. Some, like Alvin Lee, are simply part of the art/comic community in the Toronto area where UDON started. Lately, we’re also finding artists browsing Twitter, Instagram, etc. and looking at fan art of our work.
ND: Are there any artists out there that you haven’t worked with yet that you would like to have do some art for UDON?
MM: Personally, I would love to get a cover by Humberto Ramos one day. He is the only one of the original three Cliffhanger imprint artists (Ramos, Joe Madureira, and J. Scott Campbell) who has never done a piece for the UDON comics.
ND: What prompted UDON to publish a series of art books? I have found them invaluable both as an artist (I am addicted to video game concepts and advertising art) and as a game design educator.
MM: Our first art book was STREET FIGHTER: ETERNAL CHALLENGE In 2005, we localized the Japanese book version. This was a natural extension of our relationship with Capcom and the Street Fighter brand. After that, we moved on to other Capcom products such as Ōkami and Mega Man, and eventually moved on to games from other game companies and anime art books. Today, art books are perhaps the most important segment of our publishing program. We still translate books from Japan, but we also put together our own original art books.
ND: Some fans may not know this, but UDON did the artwork for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. How did this opportunity come about and what was it like?
MM: Capcom brought UDON into the game. Originally, UDON was only supposed to create stage backgrounds, endings, and character select graphics, as well as some key frames for the sprites. However, the first round of fully animated sprites went very poorly and the original sprite contractor didn’t deliver on time, so UDON was also tasked with quality control of the sprites, with the help of a new animation team. It was quite a big project!
ND: UDON is closely associated with the Street Fighter brand, but it’s just a part of what you’ve all worked on over the years. From Darkstalkers to Daigo to Team Phoenix, what are some of your favorite projects that you’ve released over the years that fans might not immediately think of?
MM: Personally, I am very proud of our four ART DARKSIDERS art books and how we covered the game universe created by Joe Madureira and Airship Syndicate. I also really like our ARTISTRY OF MACROSS art book series featuring the work of Hidetaka Tenjin. Next up, we have BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: COMPLETE ARCHIVE.
ND: Final battle The number one hit is on July 31st. How did this series come about?
MM: We’ve been talking about doing a Final Fight mini-series for many years and now finally seemed like the right time since our comic book series is doing pretty well. Bringing Matthew Weldon on to do the drawings turned out to be a perfect decision too.
ND: Is there a chance that Final Fight will become an ongoing series? And will we ever see a proper monthly series of UDON?
MM: Final battle is a four-issue series. If it’s successful enough, we’ll probably move on to the next Final Fight game after a break. For Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, we’re happy with quarterly one-shots for now, but you’ll see the upcoming one-shots become more intertwined.
ND: Shantae Swimsuit Special #1 will be released this September. How did the collaboration with WayForward come about?
MM: We started working on the Shantae franchise by putting together the book The Art of Shantae a few years ago when I was collecting all the illustrations from the various games in the series. Then recently Shantae’s creators Matt & Erin Bozon came to UDON with a pitch for a swimsuit special.
ND: Is there a chance we will see more Shantae stories from UDON in the future?
MM: Shantae’s first swimsuit special seems to have been pretty well received by fans. We’re currently chatting with white bozons about what we might do next!
ND: We’ll end with a question I’ve been meaning to ask for a while, which is whether there are any plans for original Mega Man comics from UDON. Archie had his series running for a while, which was fun, but I’d love to see how your talented artist pool tackles the Blue Bomber.
MM: As you may have heard from our San Diego Comic Con news, UDON has now acquired the comic license for Mega Man. So yes, we have a lot planned for the franchise in 2025!
We’d like to thank Matt Moylan for taking the time to chat with us. It sounds like UDON has a lot in the pipeline for video game fans to look forward to.
