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STC Streets of Rage artist Peter Richardson talks to me


Badnik Mechanic

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This has been several months in the planning, but yesterday I was finally able to meet up in person with one of my favourite STC artists, however, he never did a Sonic related strip... sorta... he actually worked on one of the more popular non Sonic strips... it was quite a popular beat-em' up game called Streets of Rage, or Bare Knuckle as it was called in Japan.... of course you know what it is!

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So I got in touch with Peter Richardson who was the main artist for Streets of Rage and to my astonishment he replied to me and we exchanged a few nice emails to one another... it was then he said that since I obviously had an interest, would I be interested in buying a few pages from him... Least to say... it didn't take me long to decide! YES!! Well... it then took several months for us both to get oranised and decide on a date and negotciate a price (I won't say how much, but it was a lot, much more than the prices at SOS, but certainly worth it).

Well yesterday I took the train down to London and during a rainy Friday at Charing Cross Station I met one of my childhood heroes, Mr Peter Richardson.

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Hes the one on the far right, couldn't get a photo of him on the day sadly.

After a handshake and a 'hello there! Nice to meet you at last" we decided to retire to a pub that Peter knew of, he was quite suprised when I told him that I'd like a diet coke since I don't tend to drink much when it comes to alcohol. He was very suprised in fact, so we sat down near a table of very scary OAPs and had a discussion about the good old days... the 90's and I managed to ask him a few questions about his time working at Sonic the Comic and he was more than willing to answer. I don't think he'll mind me telling you about our meeting, since theres nothing in here obtrusive and it's completely about Sonic the Comic so I think you'll find it interesting.

This wasn't a formal interview as such, I didn't just sit down and pitch questions to him... it was more like two people in a pub having a conversation, but I've put the questions as they are so his answers/responces make a bit more sense to a reader.

So how did you get started as an artist on STC?

Peter: Well I wasn't actually going for a job at STC, originally I wanted to work at 2000AD, the Judge Dread comic. But whilst I gave them a lot of material, they never took me on, the reason being is that the man in charge at the time... what was he called? Can't remember.... well... he would tend to take on the same people or give work to people he knew... it was a very close nit circle of players, however.... whilst this might have been good for them if it was sucessful, it meant that 2000AD at one point had over 3 years of work, unpublished. They didn't need new tallent.

What happened?

Peter: Whilst I was down there one day, I was asked by someone to have a look at this 'project.'

Project? And that was STC?

Peter: I had no idea what it was, I never found out until I accepted the job, all I knew is that it was VERY top Secret, Project X I called it. We had a script and I sent in some material and got hired... I then found out what the comic was and then got hired to work on Streets of Rage.

So it was very secretive then?

Peter: Yes, but fun, very fun, Mark Millar, who then went on to big things in America was good to work with, but so was Nigel Kitching, he did another strip when Mark went away. I was quite nervous when that happened, I had fears that they wouldn't want another strip, but thankfully they liked the reaction to it and comissioned another.

Speaking personally, I really enjoyed Streets of Rage, I might be a tad biased since it was one of my favourite games growing up, even though I had no idea what the plot was, to me it just looked like the world had gone crazy and there was a bunch of cops trying to sort it out

Peter Laughs

I have a feeling many kids were in the same boat, *laughs* we were clearly too young to play the game but we loved it, and I think that the strip really appealed to them, it captured the sense of the world going crazy

Peter: The noir style that I chose for this one was a big suprise when it worked, the fan reaction was great, as was the editorial reaction, hence the second, third and spinoff strips.

The noir style is very different from just about every other strip for any series

Peter: I'm glad people liked it, although Nigel had an interesting style, occasionally I would see him working on his De-Cap Attack strip. I had no idea what that was about, only he was including all these wacky and zany ideas and it looked hilarious, but I never understood it.

Remembering I have an issue with me that has a De-Cap strip in it, we take a look at the final part of the first ever De-Cap Attack strip

Peter: Oh yes it's all coming back now, quite a strange series, but I liked it.

What I don't understand is why they would include editiors notes and apologies before and after strips regarding the humour! I thought it was hilarious!

Peter: I think a lot of people liked that one, I didn't play that game, so I didn't know what it was like, but it made me laugh.

But like we were saying, quite different in style to the other strips, but your style certainly differs from this and most other strips

Peter: The noir style does work, but when you think about it, noir tends to be used in crime, and this is a crime story at it's heart. theres action, fighting, explosions, and oh yes very violent but it's about crime and criminal masterminds, it seems to reflect that quite well.

About the criminal mastermind, one thing that each strip was about is that Mr X had informats everywhere, the police, the politicians, on the streets, everywhere. I don't know if this was deliberate, but looking at this page....

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.... in every panel, if you look at it critically as we're doing, theres a sense that everyone is being watched, even when the team is in the battle van, due to the angles it looks like someone else other than the reader is watching the characters, they're never safe, the criminals are always watching and waiting

Peter: Thats right, especially in that page, the helicopers, the headlights, but just in general, look at any page of any strip, and it does look like they're being watched, not sure myself if that was intentional since we had such a tight turn-around time, but you're right, it certainly looks like that.

How long did you have to complete a strip?

Peter: One week for 5 pages!

Really!? Even the third series?

Peter: The third series was a bit of an exception, due to the level of detail and number of bad guys in the first part.

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Peter That took me a bit longer ten days... still very quick turnaround time... mostly due to my over-heads at the time. But still a very short time.

That 3rd series, I'm very suprised it took you only 10 days to get that one out

Peter You and me both!

Theres a lot of video game related comics today (Resistance, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, the list goes on), but Sonic the comic was probably the first one to be a regular issue, so it must have been slightly odd working on such a comic?

Peter It wasn't the strangest comission I've had, once a toy company sent me a toy, some kind of action figure and we were asked to do a comic based on that... I got paid, but the comic was never released. As for STC It was probably the first of it's kind, but it was fantastic, there was so much freedom, both for and from the writers.

I guess thats because in those days, the plot of the game was normally 5 lines long in the manual, or the player had to make one up, today they're almost like theatre or movies, so much script.

Peter Well not just that, Nigel I remember would let me add bits in here and there that I liked, I think one of his descriptions was just "The city is hot and hell" so I could draw a city, but include helicopters with searchlights, guys hanging out on the street corners, and other bits of detail... take a look at this page...

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Peter: see the second pannel? Look at the cannon, the bits of scratching against the road, wasn't in the description, I just thought that it was a free moving thing so it shouldn't be static like the van as it grinds along the road, it would bounce, look further on (pannel 4) and you'll see the gang coming close to the van. But in every strip, theres little bits here and there I added in. It just helps give the city life, adds to the crime and depression, like what we talking about with the noir element. It helps with the environment, but I loved being able to have the freedom to do this.

Would you have done a 4th series if asked? Well 5th if you include the poster mag strip

Peter: Would it suprise you to learn that I was asked to do a Sonic strip?

YES! How did that happen?

Peter: After I turned in one of the chapters, I was contacted a little while later and was asked if I'd be interested in doing a Sonic strip since my work was quite popular. But, I had to turn it down due to other commitments.

Thats such a shame, even if you stuck to the noir style, theres a number of characters that I could see it working with. But talking of the hypothetical. They focused on Streets of Rage and the second game Streets of rage 2. However there was a third title, it didn't sell great and I only played it a few years ago.

Peter: I take it was a bit different to the other two?

Robots for one thing... some of them are blatent in your face robots... but the basic plot from what I remember is that important figures are being replaced by robots... that have bombs inside them, do you think the noir style would work with that?

Peter thinks for a moment

Peter: You know, I think I could have done it justice, thinking about it now, I'm getting ideas as to how I could make it work, but keep the noir style of the original series.

Peter takes a sip of his ale

Peter: I must confess, I'm quite suprised that people still like the old comic, I can see it still working today, but I'm a little suprised theres such an interest in it.

It has generated a semi-cult status, it's a little strange, theres a core fanbase for it, but anyone who once read it almost always smiles when they see it, I recently went to a comic book festival in Leeds, Nigel Dobbyn was there selling his old material, there was also a big name from DC's Superman, a line of people was going through the building, and down the road just to meet him, I was the only one who wasn't interested and just went right to Nigel, I think I was the only one who knew he was there

Peter: There are some dedicated folks at conventions.

Well what interested me, unless you knew Nigel was there and knew what he looked like, you wouldn't recognise him, what we found nice was that the older fans were waiting in line for Superman, then once they had their autographs and photographs, they would walk past Nigel, but some spotted his Knuckles work, and every one of them would say "OMG! Sonic the Comic! This was my favourite when I was young!" Suddenly their autographed copy of Superman was no longer the most important thing in the world.

Peter and I laugh

Peter: I bet Nigel enjoyed that moment, stealing Supermans thunder.

I think what he enjoyed more was the people coming from the other side of his table. In the other room was Lew Stringer who works on the childrens comic "Toxic" and they sometimes feature Sonic, so when children were asking him for autographs, he was asking what they liked, sometimes they said "Sonic X" (Toxic would often do adverts and review Sonic games, resulting in fan art of Sonic being sent in). So Lew told them about Nigels table and his collection of Knuckles strips that he was selling.

I have a sip of coke

So on the left you had the fans of Superman, then on the right you had a small line of Children coming because they liked Sonic, they had no idea that this comic existed, or who Nigel Dobbyn was, but they were now discovering Sonic the Comic. It was almost like the older fans were now passing on the secrets of this amazing comic that they loved to a new generation.

Peter: Thats quite a nice thought.

We then flip through some pages and begin to just chat about what we see

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Oh the battle van!

Peter: Ah the battle van, everyone loves the battle van.

Thats why the end to that third strip was so shocking, they destroyed it... ... ... you can't destroy the battle van! How are they going to stop the bad guys now!

Peter: laughing Yes that was a bit unexpected wasn't it?

We then look at this page

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That was a great cliffhanger, I wasn't expecting Axel, especially after you last see him in a coma

Peter: Yes, great ending that one. Theres a small homage in there to a comic I really liked, you see the hand in pannel 2? Thats something that you can find in (Edit: I cannot remember the name of this comic), I really loved that comic, so I wanted to include that small part of it in this strip.

Speaking of including parts here and there from other comics and small in-jokes, now that many fans have grown up and some people look back at them, we tend to pick up on a few things that we didn't notice before... and sometimes theres a few well how should I put this, adult things?

Peter: Laughing Well Streets of Rage really isn't for kids, despite being in a childrens comic. here someone gets shot and then set on fire!

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I chuckle

No I mean, bits of wear words here and there, and some slightly odd content

Peter: What do you mean?

Well, in one early issue, Sonic spin attacks a trooper badnik, and just before it dies it says a muffled word that when read out loud sounds a lot like "Oh shit" and then in Wonderboy theres the severed head and a really close call line.

Peter: laughing Oh those... yes... I have a feeling theres a lot of things like that which was smuggled in.

I actually have one of the issues here that has an odd moment in it. It's in the Wonderboy strip, close to the end

We look at the decapitaed Sonic in a pool of blood. Peter bursts out laughing and several people in the pub turn and look at us

Peter: Oh thats wonderful! It doesn't suprise me, and I think that there would have been a few things like this here and there.

laughs Oh good, so I wasn't crazy and just seeing things when I found that trooper swearing

Peter: laughs No, not at all, I think theres a few more here and there.

It's now getting late, so Peter and I conlude our business, I decide to ask him one more thing... I nearly didn't ask him this because I knew he wouldn't be interested, but I would have been a bit silly not to ask it.

Urm... please forgive me for what I'm about to ask, I wasn't going to ask this but if I don't I'll probably never ask, I'm not staff on this, so it's not my decision, but I could always forward the details on to the right people if you were interested....

I then explained what Summer of Sonic is and how theres always a large number of STC fans there and if he'd be interested in going along. (I asked SOS staff before hand if they were ok with me asking this so please don't get ideas of contacting random people and asking them to come on down!)

....I know that you didn't do Sonic strips which is why I didn't think you'd be interested, but I thought I should say since I'd feel kinda bad if afterwards you got word of it and would have liked to have known about it.

Peter smiles

Peter: Whilst I'm glad you told me about it, I don't really go to conventions of any kind anymore, so I don't think I'd be the best person to go, also like you said, I didn't do anything Sonic related, so I don't think it's really my place to go to. But thank you for the invitation all the same.

I tell him that I totally understand his position on it, and honestly, he didn't do Sonic strips, so I can understand why he would feel a bit out of place there,

on the way back to the station, I ask him about something else...

So you mentioned you were working on QI?

Peter: Oh yes! the QI annual, should be out in the shops by now, I'm very suprised at how quickly it came out since I only finished the interiors a few weeks ago. But my neighbour has it and mentioned that my work is in there.

We arrived at the station and say our goodbyes.

So then... First of all I want to publically thank Mr Richardson for agreeing to meet with me and agreeing to sell pretty much his entire STC streets of Rage work to me. But also thank you for the drink! And the conversation about the early STC work, as well as the current other projects that you mentioned. I want to wish you all the best with the QI annual and with the current projects I know you're busy with. Would love to have a second meeting at some point where we can just have a chat as apposed to having this giant elephant in the room the whole time with a sign saying "MONEY" stuck to it's side.

Once again, thank you.

Now for you horrible lot.

What do you make of that. I was certainly suprised at the fact that he was asked to do a Sonic strip, had that happened, STC might have looked VERY different indeed, whilst a Noir esq (if indeed that would have been the style) Sonic the Comic strip might sound odd, consider that theres several villains like Nack and Lord Sidewinder which deal in corruption and crime, it would certainly fit their character very well.

I really should have asked if he had any thoughts about what a Streets of Rage 3 adaptation would be like. Anyway, thats enough from me... I'm tired.

Might add more tomorrow if anyone has any questions about our meeting.

Edited by Gnasher
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Cool stuff, you find all the cool people. I think that noir Sonic thing is pretty interesting as StC got pretty dark itself around issues 80-100, though not in the sort of neon, punk style seen in SoR and how Richardson expressed it in the comics. Not sure it would've actually worked though >_>

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Cool stuff, you find all the cool people. I think that noir Sonic thing is pretty interesting as StC got pretty dark itself around issues 80-100, though not in the sort of neon, punk style seen in SoR and how Richardson expressed it in the comics. Not sure it would've actually worked though >_>

Lol well it almost didn't happen, I wanted to tell people for so long, but it was so on and off I didn't want to have a sad face if it didn't happen.

As for Noir Sonic, I was actually thinking about this when I got back to my hotel.

Assuming that he would have gone for the noir style, as it's not a style he's exclusive too, but from what he said, it was popular with the readers and editorial team so it might have been what they were looking for, I could see it working, theres a bunch of Tails strips that it would work with, there was one where he had to fight some flying character named 'leaf'(?), it's a crime style strip in which Tails is framed for robberly. It's quite a dark strip in parts even though it's tails, but it's the crime esq nature which makes me think it could work.

Theres definately a lot of Knuckles strips it could work with.

Sonic is a bit hard to think of a specific strip that it would work with, but some of the characters that originalted in Sonic strips, yes, I can see it working with them. Certainly in the strip "Whatever happened to Super Sonic" Maybe "Day of the Death Egg." Also in the special strip they did near issue 130 where Robotnik was given the power of a God, theres one part showing Mobius under Robotniks rule, it's very dark and moody, Noir would have worked with this one.

It might just have been him playing with lighting techniques, he also mentioned how lighting was very important to his work, how if one object is brighter than another or darker it changes how people react to it.

Edited by Gnasher
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