Tournament Tour Fighter Chapter 1 Review - A Beat 'Em Up Comic That Packs a Punch
How about some fighter game homaging beat 'em up exploits of a gallery of fighters with intriguing back stories and motives in dynamic and colourful art? No need for cheat codes, it's Tournament Tour Fighter from H.L Roberts, Andy Aksu and Rob Jones with additional story art from Smanta Batllori.
H.L Roberts is a comic book writer from Peterborough. His previous works include BloodyWeen, Sticker Knight, and Hello! My Name Is Robert Latham, and the much-enjoyed Infection, which you can read a review of here. Alongside his comic book work, he is also the founder of The Latham Project, a beautiful charity that helps small charities local to Huntingdonshire.
Andy Aksu, also known as Narklos, is a 2D and 3D artist based in Cornwall. Andy is also a character artist at Studio Whalefall, an Autodesk technician and a Source modder. Andy is currently helping to bring a "chaotic retro-FPS set on the Cornish Coast" to life, and that awesome-sounding game is Brine. Andy is a prolific artist with a ton of amazing cover credits and commission work to be enthralled by, should you seek them out, as well as some great Half-Life webcomics.
Rob Jones is on lettering for the main story. The consummate professional who always delivers top-tier work really needs no introduction. Just know he's excellent at what he does, and you can find out where to find him at the end.
Last but by no means least for introductions, it's Samanta Batllori. Samanta is a freelance artist from Mexico City with previous works including the much-enjoyed Infection series and BloodyWeen, both of which were collaborated with H.L Roberts. Extensive introductions extended, we'd best have a review.
So, let's start with the art. Andy Aksu first with a deeply rich in detail, layered style of modernistic age comic book art. There's a delicate saturation of sketch-like lines in highlight and shading that adds a great deal of life to the character work. It comes as no surprise, given Andy's credentials, that the character work as a package is excellent. This type of story, so full of distinct individuals, much like the video games that inspired it, offers the perfect opportunity to run wild with capturing diverse and descriptively colourful characters. It sort of demands it. Here, Andy is ideally suited and more than up to the task. He creates a gallery of interesting and memorable individuals that deliver both emotionally and stylistically. Andy even manages to put a weight of emotion into a PC monitor, further establishing the level of talent being showcased.
The action set pieces are dynamically depicted in a very interesting way, made further pleasing by the vibrant and interesting use of colour, especially in the "fighting effects" area. This use of colour is talentedly executed throughout to further embellish already relishable art. It's very entertaining art, full of technical talent and craftsmanship, full of Easter eggs in character design and brilliant use of colour.
Rob Jones's signature, stylish, unfaltering lettering rounds things off perfectly. Samanta Batllori returns to collaborate with the main art on the "DLC" story. In comparison to the art on Infection, this time around Samanta presents a cleaner, more polished style. There's a soft anime influence to the art that I found really fun, and it's interesting to see this less gritty approach to the art. It's good stuff, ideally suiting its subject story. The cat character and Scottish bot design also stand out as really fun depictions, bolstered by pretty strong lettering from H.L Roberts. Decidedly delightful, digestible art asserted, it's story time.
H.L Roberts has created, with Tournament Tour fighter, a very interesting comic. The way this one develops has managed a very particular tone that is full of the beats and tropes that fighting game enthusiasts will relish in. I'm no aficionado by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm old enough to remember playing Tekken and Mortal Kombat at the arcade and a few console games like Pocket Fighter and, of course, Street Fighter, but outside of that, it's a passing relationship at best. As such, I'm sure a lot of the inside references went well over my head. However, it didn't steal much from the experience.
As mentioned, the plot points felt very reminiscent of a Tekken or Street Fighter story mode. A smorgasbord of larger than life characters being drawn together for an unexplained fighting tournament, each with their own intriguing tapestry of motives that I'm sure will collide and reveal themselves in subsequent issues. Thanks to the central conceit of this tournament being investigated by one Commander David Wolfgang the plot stays anchored as we meet increasingly wacky individuals involved, added to this is the mystery of the phantom fighter who by the end cuts the silhouette of a perfect villain.
There's a lot to take in for the first issue, with a lot of balls being juggled in the protagonist's stakes, which will be really interesting to see how Roberts manages, especially the mysterious X and Y aliens. No doubt this one will continue to be action-packed, and fans of the genre will be thoroughly titillated right up to the easter egg-fueled back cover.
Interrupting italic in indolent alliteration. Please support the comic because we both know you can never have enough. Please also support the website if you can via shares or our Ko-Fi. We need all the help we can get to keep this train going.
For fans of fighting games, beat em ups, combat, tournaments, a cavalcade of characters including a cat eared heart throb, aliens, proteges, mech dogs, Maltese men, and a sentient robot, Scottish androids, very smart cats, zombies and unexpected death in art of copious technical talent, player get ready for Tournament Tour Fighter.
To get your copy, it's another brilliant excuse to get your sweet cheeks down to the awesome celebration of indie comics, the amazing Thought Bubble Comic Convention. It's on the 15th & 16th of November at Harrogate Convention Centre (more info here), where this one is making its debut. And you'll get to meet the man himself H.L Roberts. For more on the other creators, here are some handy links:
H.L Roberts: https://hlrobertscomics.crd.co/#home.
Andy Aksu: https://andy_aksu.artstation.com/.
Rob Jones: https://robjonesletteringblog.wordpress.com/.
Samanta Batllori: https://www.instagram.com/livnimbe/.
Review: 4.5/5.
