Udon Entertainment

"UDON" redirects here. For other uses, see Udon (disambiguation).
UDON Entertainment Corporation
Comics studio
Founded 2000
Founder
  • Erik Ko (UDON chief)
  • Jim Zubkavich (project manager)
  • Matt Moylan (managing editor)
Headquarters Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Website Official website

UDON Entertainment Corporation is a studio (or "art collective") of Asian-influenced comic book creators that provides creative services to the entertainment industry. The company is a publisher of comic books, graphic novels and art books, as well as English editions of Japanese manga and Korean manhwa titles. Erik Ko is its Chief of Operations. UDON is named after a kind of Japanese noodle.

Overview

It was affiliated with Studio XD; in March 2004, UDON announced a partnership to release comics under Devil's Due Publishing. UDON's first offering was the Street Fighter comic book series, launching in September 2003. They would add a Darkstalkers comic series to their line in November 2004. In October 2005, UDON reorganized its operations and became a full-fledged publisher. Erik Ko revealed that the lengthy break in the Summer of 2005 was to recover from a licensing deal with Capcom, which saw UDON doing artwork for Capcom Fighting Evolution. Although UDON appreciated the opportunity to work on the game, and to strengthen their ties with the video game maker, it taxed their resources, and left them behind schedule on their comics. In October 2005, UDON released Street Fighter II #0, the sequel to their Street Fighter comic; it was followed in early 2006 with the long awaited launch of Rival Schools. Erik Ko discusses this in an interview with Newsarama that can be read here.[1]

The UDON panel at the 2012 New York Comic Con. From left to right are UDON Director of Marketing Chris Butcher (emceeing at the podium), Managing Editor Matt Moylan, Project Manager Jeff Zubkavich and artist Omar Dogan.

In December 2007 at the New York Anime Festival, UDON announced that it would be publishing three new Street Fighter comic book series in 2008. These include Street Fighter II Turbo (12-issue series), Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li (4-issue mini), and Street Fighter III (6-issue series).[2]

In November 2008, UDON announced it would publish a 4-issue mini-series of the upcoming Street Fighter IV game. “With the most anticipated Street Fighter game in years arriving 2009, we will be launching the SF 4 comic series as a big crossover event with the game. That would mean the originally planned SFIII series will have to make way and be released after this SFIV story arc is done.” says UDON’s Chief of Ops Erik Ko. “We are working very closely with Capcom and the SFIV producer in Japan to make this comic series as exciting as possible. The stories from our comic are linked directly to the game, and it is a genuine extension that fans will definitely love. Also expect plenty of cross promotion and marketing between our comics and the game.”[3]

In January 2009, UDON announced it had acquired the rights to produce Final Fight comic books.[4] In November 2009, UDON announced it will continue the Darkstalkers comic series with a new 3-issue mini-series called Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors.[5] In December 2009, UDON announced it will make a Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki 4-issue mini-series.[6]

Publishing

Comic book series

Imported titles

Art books

Work for other companies

Video games

Comics

Misc

References

  1. ↑ "Erik Ko & Ken Siu-Chong On The Return Of Street Fighter". Newsarama. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  2. ↑ ""New Street Fighter Comics!" press release, Dec 11, 2007". Udonentertainment.com. 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
  3. ↑ "UDON does Street Fighter IV comics".
  4. ↑ "UDON announces Final Fight comics".
  5. ↑ "Darkstalkers comics are back!".
  6. ↑ "Ibuki joins the fight!". UDON Entertainment. December 8, 2009.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to UDON.