How fondly I remember my first experience with a Street Fighter II cabinet all those years ago, in the corner of a dingy little 7-Eleven here in L.A. that managed to survive the Rodney King riots and who knows what else. Over a decade and a half later and I still play a lousy Ken... guess I'm what you'd call a slow learner.

However, one thing that has remained a constant in my love affair with Capcom's fighting series has been a deep and profound appreciation of the game's artistic merits, which are certainly nothing to sneeze at. In fact, I credit the series with giving many Westerners their first true glimpse of the Japanese aesthetic, years before anime and manga broke through the mainstream and series such as Dragonball and Naruto became a part of the public consciousness.

Being an artist myself, it was only a matter of time before I put pen to paper and tried my hand at drawing the cast of Street Fighter. After all, Ryu, Ken and Co. inspired me creatively as nothing else had since the DC and Marvel Bronze Age. There's been a lot of hit-and-miss on my part over the years, several projects ended up as clumps of paper in the waste bin, while some made it to the coloring stage, but will never leave my hard drive due to personal dissatisfaction.

The images I've posted to my profile are the portraits I feel especially proud of, the same portraits that have been on my Street Fighter fansite for years. I hope you enjoy them, and get a sense for the love and appreciation I've had for the series since its inception all those years ago.

And for the record, my illustration gallery isn't the only Street Fighter related project I've been working on. Perhaps one day I'll be able to share the "History of Fighting Games" book that's been on the stove for the better part of a decade. :)