I wrote a fighting game comic

30 October 2024 • Andy Corrigan

Since June 2023, when Street Fighter 6 launched and compelled me to take fighting games more seriously and rejoin the local FGC, I've thought a lot about the learning and improvement journey. It’s the same thinking that led to me to start this blog, in fact.

Around that time, my wife started making clay jewellery to sell on Etsy. In walking past her workstation on my way to get water or snacks between sets, it struck me how there were a lot of similarities in how we both approached improving at two fundamentally different tasks.

The similarities were especially prevalent in the areas of repetition; performing an action over and over to fine-tune a process until it’s as natural as blinking. The similarities don’t end there; there’s also learning how to deal with your failures constructively, and optimising how you perform those tasks by making your process as efficient as possible.

I spent a day or two chewing over those similarities and came to a realisation about one key difference: With fighting games, it’s the player that’s the medium. You are the one molded by your experiences.

And that thought set the cogs in motion for ‘Like Clay’ a short, 2-page comic about the process of learning how to play a fighting game.

Panel 1 starts with the theme in action

I reached out to a few artists about collaborating on the comic but landed on Quasimodox, who is renowned for his Capcom fighting game fan art in FGC circles. He’s done covers for the official Street Fighter comics from Udon and even has his art in Street Fighter 6, in the form of a challenge screen for everyone’s least favourite zoner, JP.

Not only did he understand the brief, he also helped me improve the script with a small change to the penultimate panel - a change that made the message of overcoming your problems land even stronger.

Anyway, you can read Like Clay for free on my (in-progress) portfolio site, alongside my other comics.

Hope you enjoy the read!