A mysterious man named Joe arrives on the scene of Valley Town, hiding amongst the populace. Despite his efforts to remain hidden, he’s garnered attention as the best fighting game player at Round House Arcade. With popularity, invites challenge, and challenge is what awaits Joe as his past catches up to him. Can Joe find who he’s in search of? Who is hunting Joe? Will Joe’s fighting game abilities be enough to fend off the threats that await him, and honor his family legacy?

Dylan Burnett introduces readers to a fast-paced series that is part slice of life, part action, and pure fun. Burnett does a great job setting the book up with characters that are memorable, humorous and fun. There’s a charm to Burnett’s writing that while it might be by the numbers with the tropes that come with stories of its nature, he manages to effectively keep it fresh and exciting that a reader is willing to see where the story goes next. That is largely due to Dylan Burnett’s art which is perfect for the kind of story he’s aimed to tell. It’s dynamic, stylistic, energetic, and bubbly. From layout’s to panel compositions to character expression, action, and humor, he’s able to effectively catch the reader’s eye and entertain without risk of boredom. One of the largest contributing factors to the book’s excitement is attributed to the color work crafted by Walter Baiamonte, Sara Antonelli, Simona Lurati, and Sharon Marino, all of whom enhance Burnett’s dynamic work tenfold, adding more zest to the book than it already has

Andworld Design contributes fantastic letter work that matches the kind of aesthetic that Burnett and the rest of the team aimed for and achieved that by making the lettering seamlessly cohesive to the art itself. If you’re a fan of fighting games, especially 90’s all the way to the early 2000s era of fighting games akin to the Capcom variety, manga, scott pilgrim, the 2003 Teen Titans animated series, works by Daniel Warren Johnson, then you’re going to love this series! I can’t stress it enough how much the entire team effectively captured the kind of essence that inspired it so well. Add this book to your pull list, you won’t regret it.

By Anthony Andujar Jr.

Anthony Andujar Jr. is an NYC cartoonist and lover of comics and music. So much so that it led him to writing comic book reviews in between it all.