Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 2

In a previous blog I mentioned that I hadn’t drawn in my sketchbook in years. When I did I would often create something basketball related. I absolutely loved the sport. Drawing basketball players helped me learn anatomy, perspective, color, and action poses. I learned how to color my work with Adobe Illustrator while turning those sketches into finished renders. In that blog I also mentioned that I had turned down working with shoe, and apparel manufacturer AND 1. The company wanted to buy the rights to my current, and future basketball characters for a flat rate.

I would be getting no residuals on potential millions worth of revenue that the parent company would. In the early 2000’s there was no hotter place to work for. As an artist just getting started it was a dream opportunity, but I decided to hold onto my IP, and scruples instead. I learned that it was okay to turn down some clients after reading an interview with Michael Lau, one of my favorite artists. Mr. Lau helped start a movement. If you want to get the complete history of his early years please visit the Michael Lau fan site which I recently restored. I mentioned a few of Michael’s contemporaries on my fan site, however I want to try to connect the dots, and explain how art, culture, and the toy market came together.

The art movement started in the early ’90s. Michael was from Hong Kong. He graduated from the Design First Institute, and went into ad art, and display design in the port city. In his free time he would make models, and toys. He sketched out a world of street kids that he called the “gardeners” the lowercase “g” was on purpose. In the mid-90’s he would create album covers for his friends in the Hip Hop, and rock groups Anodize (Jimmy Man, Gary Cheng, K.K. Wong, Was, and Davy Chan), Jan Lam, and the Lazymuthafucka (MC Yan, DJ Tommy, Kit, Wah, Kee, Gary, Davy, Jimmy, Sam, Phat, Prodip, and Kevin) crews.

These album covers were very playful. They featured handmade figures in street, or city scenes. The Japanese group SMAP loved his work, and also commissioned him to create some album covers for them a few years later. Now I want you to remember that during this era the internet was still in its infancy as far as access went. Art, music, news, and culture spread much slower than today. Magazines were the only way for most people to see what the trends were.With that said it was still the street kids that were aware of what was happening around the world.

Whether in China, Japan, the UK, or the US pop music was, and would always be the catchy songs that were featured on the radio, tv, and movie screens. The rugged “urban” sound of rap would always be seen as the Black music from the USA, and not be as heavily promoted in most nations. This didn’t stop generations of kids from getting into Hip Hop culture. The kids in the favelas of Brazil, the kids in densely packed cities in Japan, and also the displaced Eastern European kids spread all over the world could hear that it was an entirely new movement, and they embraced it. They learned that Hip Hop was a culture made of multiple components.

The four pillars were known as the deejay (the music/band), the emcee (the singer), graffiti (the art), and b-boy (the dance). Individually they were great creative outlets, but together they formed an entirely new culture. The fifth pillar of Hip Hop was called “Overstanding” instead of understanding by Afrika Bambaataa, one of the architects of the movement. Mr. Bambaataa was a former gang leader, in the ‘70s he saw that the various tribes, or gangs in NYC were tearing each other apart. The police, and local governments were sewing division among the various ethnic groups, and he wanted to end the violence. 

He knew that parties, music, and culture could bring them together. The boroughs of New York were forming a new sound. It wasn’t rock, it wasn’t soul, funk, or blues, but it pulled influences from each. With Black, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino roots it spoke to millions of people that didn’t hear themselves on the radio. They called the movement Hip Hop, reclaiming it from the insult that people would use to describe the music. The culture would tie together the different sounds, and stories of the city. More important, it was up to every person to share the story, and spread the culture. The movement borrowed a phrase from the days of American slavery “each one teach one.” In Hong Kong, Japan, and elsewhere around the world the music, and art started taking off by the mid, and late ‘80s. Members were building their own crews, learning the dance, graffiti, rap, and turntable. They were telling the stories in their own native languages.

Michael Lau, his friends, and contemporaries were in the right place, at the right time. More important Michael was telling the story of the culture in his comics. He introduced the world to the gardeners in short panel comics in the Oriental Daily Newspaper, and larger color pieces in the pages of East Touch magazine. These comics mixed his illustrations, with his models. Each character had their own story, they lived in a world that young readers could relate to. He imagined they were growing up together, building families, moving on with their lives just as his friends were doing through the ‘90s.

His friends convinced him to create a run of the figures for an upcoming indy art toy show. It all started with the hero of his comics, the young skater named Maxx. Sculpting, painting, and making the outfits was tedious work. Michael went to the trouble of making a custom box for the original toy show release. Green felt simulated grass was on the floor of the box. The boxes even featured hand-drawn labels, and a plastic numbered window. The figure included a skateboard, and a bag (for a change of clothes). Most figures even came with a sticker sheet or comic strip.  

When Michael sold his Gardeners at toy shows and boutiques there were about 10 copies per character (Maxx, Miss, Brian, Tatto and Uncle) each in a numbered box. Every copy had a unique element, such as different clothes or shoes. He sold each figure for around $350 US, which would be a steal by today's custom figure rates. A few years ago one of the original figures popped up for sale at a gallery auction. It went for around $35,000. The figures went to close friends, and private collectors. The number on the boxes were also a play on "selling out" the Gardener figures. Michael had no intention of ever mass producing anything he worked on. As an artist he wanted to control his name, and the quality of his artwork. A poster print could be run in limited quantities, but it would be easily counterfeited. The figures were something much harder to recreate. Needless to say his toys were a hit. They were the talk of the toy fair. They sparked a fire that would see his friends, and contemporaries also try their hand at the art form. One of the earliest that wasn’t credited enough, even by me was Eric So.

Mr. So ran in the same circle as Michael, he was friends with the LMF crew. He was also very familiar with Hip Hop culture. As an aside there were plenty of people in the USA that still conflated rap, and Hip Hop as the same thing. As the emcee KRS-One said “Rap is something you do, Hip-Hop is something you live. You are not doing Hip-Hop, you are living Hip-Hop.” This perception wasn’t limited to the USA. To the marginalized Gen-Xers in Japan, China, and Hong Kong rap, and rock was the music that spoke more to them than pop. They assimilated the culture, and made something entirely new out of it. I don’t think there could have been any other place that could have used Hip Hop culture, and start a figure movement with it. Think about the location for a moment. Fashion trends started in the major cities. Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, etc. When a person thinks of the most avant-garde fashion in the world they might point to a place like Harajuku in Japan. The kids there took their tribal cultures seriously, and worked hard to create their niche.

I would argue that the kids of Hong Kong in the ‘90s were some of the most underrepresented innovators in art, and fashion as well. Hong Kong as a nation was unique in that it had its finger on the pulse of global culture. They were colonized by the British, but situated in China. More than any other metropolis they imported, and exported the goods that the world demanded. They worked directly with the manufacturers of the biggest brands, often behind the scenes. These included high-end fashion labels.

The trend setters in Hong Kong knew where street culture was moving to months before the rest of society caught up. Again, remember they were doing this before the internet. They were seeing the culture shift first hand, and making it their own. Michael Lau, Eric So, and their friends had a foot in the East, and the West at the same time. When they produced something it could be universally understood. They were laying the foundation for something brilliant. The world just didn’t know it yet. I would say that all of that changed when Michael went to Japan for his Neatnik exhibition in 1998. Japanese musicians were now eager to work with him on album art. He was now an artist getting international exposure.

The following year there was the Michael Lau Exhibition III-crazysmiles at the Hong Kong-art center. This was the first show that featured all 101 of his original gardener figures. Fans of his comics could see all of the characters in person. Each figure was standing in a resin case, and you could walk around each of them, and absorb the countless details. In 2001 he took the exhibit to Japan, and that was essentially when the movement really took off. I remember that my mind was blown the very first time I saw a picture of the gardeners from that exhibition. It was entirely by accident, I was flipping through the pages of the Japanese skateboard magazine called Ollie. There was an insert from G-Shock watches by Casio. They were helping sponsor the gallery shows, and ran an ad on athletes, and artists to keep an eye on. Pictured were just a few of the gardeners but my mind was blown. I needed to find out everything I could about the characters, and the artist. I still have that magazine, and showed it to Lau a decade later.

When it came to the birth of Hip Hop DJ Steinsky (of Double Dee & Steinsky’s Lessons 1, 2 & 3 fame) once said “This is music that I’ve been waiting all my life to hear, and I didn’t even know it.” I got the same reaction when looking at the pictures of the gardeners. This was an art form that I’ve been waiting all my life to see, and I didn’t know it. Studying the work of Lau would shape me into a better artist, and connect me to the community in ways I could never have predicted. But I’ll talk about that more later. Were there ever works of art, or creators that completely changed the way you thought about art? Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Disney, the Italian Legacy, part 5 - A 1UP classic from July 18, 2011

If the subject for the blog was about Disney board games most would automatically assume that I was talking about the licensed board games. Disney’s version of Monopoly, Disney’s version of Clue or even Disney’s version of Candyland might come to mind. Yet Disney used to produce original board games which honored their legacy and were instantly collectable at the same time. Some of the earliest were based on Disneyland attractions and were both fun and highly collectable. This blog will talk about one of the rarer board games from overseas.

The 1974-75 release of Paperopoli Il Gran Gioco Degli Affari D’oro was a high-water mark for the Italians. Paperopoli was the Italian name for Duckberg. The subtitle translated to the Great Game of Business Gold. This game was ambitious in scope and execution. The game was designed for a maximum number of 6 players. A quick look at the contents could identify the various items used in the playing of the game. There were six cone shaped markers identifying the players and six major commodities to collect. Assets were tracked on individual portfolios. Transactions were made with large sums of colored paper money.

The game took its inspiration from Monopoly, with colored paper money involved and commodities that could be collected during the play. However the game had far more of a business spin to it.

Players started with a share of a particular business; Commerce, Industry (Manufacturing), Transportation, Credit, Oil or Construction. Stakes in each business were denoted by colored chips or tokens with impressions of the business logos on them. Players would then take turns going around the board trying to make money by buying or selling stakes in their portfolio.

The board itself was based heavily on comic book canon. Just about all of the major players from the pages of Topolino were featured on the squares including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Gladstone Gander, Scrooge McDuck, Moby Duck, Jubal Frostfeathers Pomp, John Rockerduck, the Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell and Madam Mim. The latter two spell casters were used to create “earthquakes” or violent changes in the market. After all, what could explain the sometimes turbulent "invisible hand of economics" if it wasn’t magic? Players made their way around the board, affecting the various businesses by landing on squares and collecting commodities or by adjusting the stock market wheel, which was denoted on a separate board. Players gained or lost money depending on what they were invested in. Players in the lead got to hold onto Scrooge’s Number One coin to denote their business superiority.

Just because a player started in a particular industry it did not mean they were locked into it. Players could diversify their portfolio and try to cover the markets they felt held the most potential. The entire mechanic was brilliant for teaching players about the ins and outs of business culture and the stock market. As far as I know this play mechanic had not been repeated in any board game.

The game was very cleverly put together and layered in tremendous detail. The bright illustration on the cover gave a clear shot of the city and highlighted all of the various industries in Duckberg, making sure to include buildings and commerce owned and operated by the major players in Duckberg.

Each of the items included in the game carried over the same themes and attention to detail. The stock certificates for example reinforced the graphics imprinted on the colored plastic chips. They looked like tiny shares underwritten by both Scrooge and Rockerduck and could be set onto each player's portfolio.

The baknotes were pure works of art. The currency of Paperopoli was signed by the Bank Governor and Cashier Zio Paperone, the Italian name for Uncle Scrooge. These bills were far more impressive than the currency used in Monopoly. The denominations were also much larger in Paperopoli than in Monopoly. The smallest bill in Monopoly was $1 while the largest was $500 The smallest denomination in Paperopoli was $1000 with the largest being $100,000.

The denominations in Paperopoli had to be large given the shares of industries that could be purchased. The stock market in Paperopoli could cause shares to jump exponentially up or down in price meaning that fortunes could be made or destroyed rather quickly. Additionally the bank notes had to be in high denominations because the goal of the game was to be the first to reach $1 Million or be the last player not to go bankrupt.

The design, concept and execution of Paperopoli were nothing short of genius. The game demonstrated the type of innovation that Disney was capable of when they put their best foot forward. The thing that helped elevate this game to greatness was more than the tremendous amount of work that went into it but instead the exclusivity of the title. Paperopoli was only available for order from the pages of Topolino magazine.

Italian fans that admired and appreciated the Disney universe could get a fantastic game that could never be found in any toy, hobby or department store.

These types of promotional items were not uncommon in the pages of Topolino, just like the gadgets, figures or toys available to subscribers. Publishers rewarded fans of Disney with unique collectables designed for the whole family. There was nothing similarly available to Disney fans in the USA by comparison. This did not mean that Disney in the USA was not trying. The fledgling D23 the Official Fan Club for Disney enthusiasts was launched to try and reach out to the generations of fans and find out what their interests were. Subscribers would receive a poster or pin unavailable in any store. There was still a long way to go before fans in the USA had the same choices as those in Italy. In the past few years the publishers of Topolino had been helping the US Disney offices reach more fans than ever before. How they did it will be explored in the next blog.

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Disney, the Italian Legacy, part 4 - A 1UP classic from July 13, 2011

Each figure released with the De Agostini Disney Collection came with a dozen-page magazine. This magazine highlighted the character and gave all sorts of information about them including first appearance and notable stories they were featured in. My favorite in the collection was surprisingly not Scrooge McDuck but instead his oldest rival in canon. The Italians called him Nonno Bassotto, to English speakers it was Grandpa Beagle, the patriarch of the notorious Beagle Boy clan.

The Collection magazine featured an interview with the superb artist Giorgio Cavazzano as well as his insights to the long running character. Some of his best moments in comic history were featured as well as a comparison article to how the character was presented around the world. The Collection made the distinction that the eldest member of the Beagle clan made his debut as Blackheart Beagle in the 1957 story The Fantastic River Race. In later appearances in US comics, most drawn by Don Rosa he would return not with a long thin mustache but with a full white beard. This character would still be known as Blackheart rather than Grandpa. Blackheart Beagle and the pipe-smoking Nonno Bassotto were one and the same person, each was just presented differently in each country.

The collection magazine also noted that in the animated series Duck Tales the role of Blackheart Beagle was played instead by his wife Ma Beagle. Blackheart Beagle was only sparsely used in the US. His offspring made far more appearances and even had their own comic series for a while in the US. By comparison Nonno Bassotto was a main player in the pages of Topolino. He would constantly play the foil against Scrooge, Donald, Mickey and even Paperinik. And just like Scrooge, he was still somewhat animated despite his age. His appearances were often marked by bits of comedic writing as he had little patience for his children.

In Italy the Beagle Boys were headquartered out of a little yellow trailer on the outskirts of town. The trailer became as identifiable in the comics as the Money Bin or Donald Duck’s 313 car. As the decades progressed the shape of the trailer changed slightly but the Beagles never moved out. They would try to devise plans on getting into Scrooge’s Money Bin. All the while Nonno would train his kin on all sorts of criminal activities and expound the virtues of larceny. As with the other De Agostini figures in the Disney Parade and Disney Collection series the sculpt for Nonno Bassotto had to tell a story. The figure had to convince audiences that he was based on a living character. Behind the mask collectors had to see a villain thinking up a grand scheme. When I look at the statue I think De Agostini got him completely right. His stance leaning to one side, one hand in pocket and the other cradling his pipe, looking over his shoulder, Nonno was certainly up to something.

The figure reminded me of what had been lacking for collectors in the USA. As Topolino magazine constantly reminded audiences what was so great and memorable about the Disney universe, so too did De Agostini create figures and collectibles that were relevant to the universe. Compare this to how the Disney characters were marketed and distributed in the USA. While visiting the toy section of various stores and even the ones at the theme parks I kept a mental count of what Disney figures I could find that were comparable to the De Agostini ones. Many of the iconic characters appeared on children’s toys, plush figures and clothing. Older kids could find figures based on Disney / Pixar’s Toy Story and Cars. But when it came to figures based on the library of characters featured in Topolino magazine they were nearly impossible to find. I’m not talking about obscure characters either; I mean Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. In the parks themselves there were expensive high-end statues featuring some of the characters, play sets based on theme park attractions and Vinylmation figures with images stamped onto a generic bear shape but not simple figures of the characters for sale.

When it came to actual dedicated figures of the mascots and the extended universe there was nothing available in or outside of the parks. The next time you go to a big retail store look at the toy section and see if you can find anything remotely close to what De Agostini was producing, or for that matter, anything comparable to the Topolino gadget sets. What was Disney doing or not doing in the USA to make these characters relevant to newer generations? Disney had not produced a 2D animated series featuring the mascots in years. The only series they seemed to have going was a 3D show for toddlers called the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The Disney Channel rarely showed any classic animation, and the Disney XD channel showed cartoons from Marvel and live-action shows instead of any classic material. The merchandise available in stores and parks placed iconic figures alongside characters barely a season old. Disney seemed to be doing the bare minimum to create, market and sell products in the US. The more “collectable” they could make an item appear, by simply changing a color scheme for example, the easier they could control the market. The US Disney consumer goods team seemed to be doing the bare minimum to create products. Some would argue that they were being lazy and too focused on the bottom line.

Consider the amount of work that went into creating a monthly series of comics, developing gadget toys for subscribers and sculpting a series of figures for collectors. From a business standpoint the overhead must have been tremendous but the end result was definitely worth it. Fans in Italy could still walk into a store and find clothing with the mascots on them, or into any toy store and buy items from the latest Pixar film. Disney in Italy was doing a lot to give consumers choices. They kept the mascots alive and well in print even if they could not do so on television. Part of the success of the mascots in Italy had to do with the Disney Academy.

The coalition of artists in Italy, now several generations deep, had a hand in design for consumer products and advertising. When they weren’t working on comics they were helping to produce figures and toys with great attention to detail. The USA seemingly had nothing comparable. They did not have a market or use a media outlet to promote the icons in any format, especially not within the pages of a family friendly comic. Disney USA chose instead to license whatever they could not manufacture or develop themselves. The next blog will challenge the idea of licensing Disney characters rather than developing products in house. Were there any rare Disney characters that you were a fan of? I'd like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The return of a wrestling icon in Fatal Fury City of Wolves

Yesterday the blog looked at some concept art from Garou Mark of the Wolves (1999) thanks to some scans that my friend Zero shared with me. We saw how some character designs evolved. Some characters were dropped, and some ended up being the blueprints for brawlers that would turn up in the King of Fighters series. One of the returning faces in the Garou 2 / Fatal Fury City of Wolves was a masked wrestler that went by the name of Griffon Mask / Tizoc. He was easily one of my favorite pro wrestling characters in a video game. He captured the essence of lucha libre better than 90% of the masked wrestlers in any other title.

There were layers to his design that were important to fans of the sport. Even if you knew nothing about pro wrestling you could tell he was an interesting character, with a unique move set, and his own personal reason for fighting. For die-hard fans of lucha libre his design, and inclusion was profound. There were a lot of differences between the pro wrestling featured in the USA, and in Mexico. I’m going to give you a light overview today, but if you want a deep dive I wrote a comprehensive history of lucha libre on the blog many years ago. Wrestling in Mexico is called lucha libre, literally “free fight” or “freestyle fighting.” Not every luchador or wrestler wore a mask. That was a misnomer. A masked wrestler in Mexico was called an enmascarado.

The good guys were referred to as técnicos, literally technical wrestlers. They obeyed the rules of the sport, and practiced good sportsmanship. The villains were called rudos, literally rude, rough, or rugged fighters. They were expected to use dirty tactics, and cheat at every opportunity. It was up to the técnico to beat them fair, and square. It was a challenge never to stoop to their level. There were both good guy, and bad guy enmascarados. They represented a literal battle between good, and evil. In the King of Fighters universe Griffon Mask was among the best of the técnicos. He had no intention of entering the KOF tournament but was recruited by a boxer named Vanessa. Griffon was on the opposite end of the spectrum of Raiden, the heel, or evil masked wrestler that appeared in the original Fatal Fury from 1991. Raiden was based on Leon White aka Big Van Vader. Mr. White (R.I.P) was hugely popular in Japan in the ‘80s, and ‘90s. He influenced the creation of Raiden, as well as Sheep the Royal / Alexander the Grater from the Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters (1993) series by Capcom.

Griffon Mask was the definition of a babyface, or face for short. These were the good guys. He was a noble wrestler, and he fought for all the right reasons. He was actually a mentor to young poor kids, and using his winnings to help orphans. This was a trait shared by King from the Tekken (1994) series. The stories of masked wrestlers fighting for orphans was based on the true story of Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm). He was a monk that would wrestle while masked in order to raise money for the orphanage he ran. His legend changed the perception that Japanese fans had of masked wrestling. He would inspire the creation of some great fighters. The teams at Namco, and SNK seemed to have a profound respect for the sport. By comparison I was not happy with how the developer at Capcom took away the elements of lucha libre, and replaced them with cooking gimmicks for El Fuerte in Street Fighter IV (2008).

In the King of Fighters XIV (2016) Team Mexico featured a new character. Joining fellow pro wrestler Ramon, and Angel was a new enmascarado named King of Dinosaurs. This guy had a similar build, and move set to Griffon Mask. He was however a rudo. Ramon, Angel, and several other competitors in the tournament knew he was actually Griffon but played along in order to preserve “kayfabe” or keep audiences from discovering the truth. The reason for his change in demeanor was because he had been beaten by a young boxer named Nelson. In order to get even he was willing to fight dirty in the tournament. He didn’t want to let any of his fans down so he created a new persona, and mask by extension. I had written about Nelson, the boxing phenom with vitiligo previously on the blog.

I’m glad that Griffon was back to his good guy identity. I wondered if Vanessa had something to do with this, or if it would be addressed during the story mode. I was eager to see if he was going to have a new rival in Fatal Fury the City of Wolves. It would be great if Raiden, or a new rudo debuted in the sequel. What do you think of this character? Were you ever a fan of pro wrestling, or lucha libre? I’d like to hear about it on the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Garou Mark of the Wolves, how some characters evolved from concept art

At the EVO 2024 tournament in Japan SNK showed off a playable build of Fatal Fury City of Wolves, this was the sequel to the 1999 fan favorite Garou Mark of the Wolves. I had written about the original title, and updates on the sequel a few times on the blog. Most recently I talked about Preecha the Muay Thai genius. The entire character lineup hadn’t been revealed yet. There was a lot of speculation as to who was next to be unveiled. I wondered if the concept art of the original game might give us a hint as to how some of the cast evolved. Thanks to Zero an Italian friend of the blog (Grazie!) I was able to put together this quick writeup. 

Preecha was not in the original game, however a sprite sheet of the Garou 2 cast had been revealed a few years ago. In the lineup there was a Muay Thai girl that was an understudy of Joe Higashi. If we looked at the original concept art we could see there had been a few girls in the planning stages. One of them had shorts, and padded feet, and hands. She might have been the prototype design for Preecha from 25 years ago. There was also a girl with a briefcase. I think this might have been one of the conceptss for the pirate princess B. Jenet.

In the official canon B. Jenet came from a rich family, however she was bored with her lifestyle. She rebelled by forming a pirate crew, and going on treasure hunts. I think the girl with the briefcase might have been how Jenet would have looked when she was running away from home. An actual pirate girl would pop up in the concept art as well. The character had a sword, had a classic skull, and crossbones tattoo on her shoulder, and wore tattered clothing. She looked much more aggressive, and mysterious than the final design for Jenet. The character’s hair would get longer, and much softer in revised drawings. Eventually setting the template that would become the sassy blonde pirate queen herself.

I’m a firm believer that no good idea goes to waste. There were a few character designs that didn’t seem to work for the original Garou, however they would be revisited in other titles by SNK. One of the early concepts was a bald fighter with an oversized coat. He seemed to have sharpened nails. At a quick glance he might have been confused for Mr. Big, one of the South Town bosses that had first appeared in the Art of Fighting. So this character was redesigned a few more times. The coat was made more stylized, not unlike Jedah from the Vampire/Darkstalkers series.

His costume, and overall look would continue to evolve. Eventually he appeared like some sort of martial arts assassin. This character seemed to be one of the poison fist fighters like Duo Lon, A.K.I., Kurow, and Red Snake. Although this character wouldn’t appear in Garou in 1999, the design seemed to be the prototype for Lin. He would debut a year later in the King of Fighters 2000.

This wasn’t the only character destined to appear in a related game. Another concept character looked like a wild bruiser with a metallic arm, or brace. This arm was a weapon, a sort of cannon that could be used to fire projectiles. Long time fans of the SNK universe could remember that there was another fighter that had a similar mechanic who debuted in 1999. Maxima was a soldier that underwent a cybernetic transformation to make him bigger, stronger, with a false arm that could shoot projectiles. The weird thing was that this character had actually been in the planning stages from the team much earlier than that.

I argued that the designs for K’, Maxima, and Kryzalid from the KOF games were pulled from Daraku Tenshi: the Fallen Angels. The design for a large fighter with an arm cannon was seen in 1998 with the US soldier Harry Ness. The Steel Hearts team that developed the Fallen Angels for Psykio was credited for designing KOF 2001, and 2002, I would argue that their designs were influencing SNK as early as 1999. There was simply too much crossover with what would appear in the SNK games for it to be a coincidence.

There were two concept characters in Garou that only needed a little bit of polish in order to get them ready for the game. There was a classic martial arts villain, and a mysterious warrior in the planning stages. These designs could have been revised again, and again until the best elements of each ended up creating a single character. Instead the team saw that there was enough to make two distinct warriors out of them.

One of the designs was fairly straightforward. What if there were a fighter that was stylized on classic Chinese villains. Someone with a long ponytail, long pants, and wushu sash belt. He would appear similar to Feng Wei who debuted in Tekken 5 in 2004. In the earliest draft this character had massive black tattoos on his hands, and forearms. Perhaps they were tattoos, or they were to signify that he had some sort of poison fist. It was also possible that this marker was transferred to Lin for the King of Fighters game instead.

The look of this character was refined so that he looked more classic, and distinct from the other fighters they were working on. Gato ended up being one of the main villains in the Garou manhua (Chinese comics). His look was a little too traditional in my book. There weren’t any elements in his design that could have connected him to the modern era. He could have fit right into the feudal era of Samurai Spirits, or the Last Blade rather than the modern world. It didn’t take a lot to make the difference either. Something subtle like giving him sneakers (as Capcom did with Yan, Yang, and Jamie) could bring him into our time, while still allowing him to represent classic kung-fu forms.

The other villain that SNK was working on was supposed to be more mysterious. One of the ways they did this was by making his costume more stylized. Perhaps he would have only one arm in a sleeve, or even have him wearing a cape, and mask. These things were rarely seen in fighting games, and usually only appeared on bad guys. This rough idea would be the basis for the masked Grant. He would become the enforcer for Kain R. Heinlein, the main villain in Garou Mark of the Wolves.

Not every concept piece had potential. Some ideas were scrapped, some ideas would be revisited in sprite form for the proposed Garou sequel. There were some rough ideas that I was glad were changed early on. One of which was for the Black karate master Marco Rodriguez. This was a character that I had celebrated a decade ago in my second blog entry. In his original design he had an afro, rather than a pompadour. The afro was a trope that I had talked about previously as well. It was a bit lazy from Japanese developers to stick Black characters with a basketball, or afro because they simply couldn’t be bothered to have better representation.

There were some other ideas in the drafting process that I’ll talk about more in the future. How other popular characters evolved from concept art to the screen. Until then I’d like to hear your thoughts on the comments section. Were there ever any concept characters that you wish had appeared in your favorite games? Tell me about it. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!