For the past several years, Galloping Ghost Arcade has sponsored Mortal Kombat-related events involving the actors from the classic titles, and this year is no exception! Today, the Kombat Kon Website has been updated with the release date of October 27, 2018 - mark your calendars!
As usual, attendees can expect a meet and greet with the actors, photo ops, signed photos, cosplay, tournaments, and more! And, everyone is encouraged to bring their own MK memorabilia to get signed by the cast as well.
The preliminary guest list has been announced as follows...
Chris Alexander (Johnny Cage MK Trilogy)
John Parrish (Jax)
Liz Malecki (Sonya)
Daniel Pesina (Johnny Cage and all the male ninjas)
Phillip Ahn (Shang Tsung)
Tony Marquez (Kung Lao)
Brian Glynn (Shao Kahn)
Rich Divizio (Baraka, Kano, Quan Chi, and Kabal)
Sal Divita (Nightwolf, Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke)
John Turk (Shang Tsung and all the male ninjas)
More to come...
Tickets should be available for purchase soon through the Kombat Kon website. The standard tickets are $25, and the VIP tickets are $60 (which gives the ticketholder extended hours and access to the after-party).
In conjunction with Kombat Kon, we at Mortal Kombat Online are also in the early stages of planning a special community event for our own members for the night before - Friday, October 26th! Join us as we celeberate our upcoming 20th anniversary! This will be your chance to meet and chat with MKO staff members and others from the MKO Community. We'll also be conducting a special stream that Friday as we look back at our site's history of covering the Mortal Kombat franchise. Details on how to register will be forthcoming. Space may be limited.
Model and musician Paris Jackson brought a touch of Mortal Kombat to San Diego Comic-Con this week, attending the event in full costume as Sonya Blade! She shared photos of her outfit via Twitter and Instagram accounts. Click thumbnails to enlarge below:
The costume recreates Sonya's updated design from Mortal Kombat (2011), with military green vest, pants, black gloves, and sidearm -- just like the game! Fans learned of her famous father's MK fandom when author Paul Theroux shared fond memories in 2009.
Singer Zayn Malik took inspiration from Sonya's Special Forces partner, Jax, combining fashion with metallic arm coverings while attending the 2016 Meta Gala. Official cosplay models were part of Mortal Kombat promotion in 2011 [full story].
The very first crossover comic between Injustice: Gods Among Us and another franchise is here! Issue 1 was released as a digital chapter yesterday [purchase] with a print edition to follow shortly.
Featuring the writing of Tim Seeley, art by Freddie E. Williams II, coloring by Jeremy Colwell, and lettering by Wes Abbott, the first of this six-part miniseries sets the tone for the crossover chaos to come!
The story begins with a brief intro narrated by Zodac, hurtling alone through outer space. Through his exposition, we are introduced to this particular incarnation of Eternia. Interestingly, this series takes place in the aftermath of a He-Man/Thundercats crossover event, where it turns out that the evil robot impostor Faker has been posing as He-Man and ruling in his stead. On the DC side, this series takes place in the aftermath Injustice 2, following Superman’s ending, where he has destroyed Brainiac and appropriated his tech to turn Batman into a mindless servant.
After He-Man and the forces of good on Eternia conclude their battle, Batman (from the alternate universe) and members of the resistance arrive on the scene! In true comic book crossover form, heroes from both sides fight each other before realizing they’re on the same side. When Mossman and Swamp Thing used their telepathic link with plants to communicate with each other, it wasn’t long before they convinced their respective teammates to stand down. Batman explains that the team’s purpose in coming to Eternia was to enlist He-Man’s help against the tyrannical Superman. So, off they go!
Superman, it is revealed, has been collecting magical artifacts (magic being one of his few weaknesses) to ensure that they cannot be used against him. And, unbeknownst to our heroes, he has already enlisted the help of Skeletor—what type of force the Man of Steel used to compel his aid is left to the reader’s imagination. The first issue concludes by going back to Zodac, who has come face to face with Darkseid and his forces from Apokolips.
A read like this is a bit more involved than, say, the self-contained Mortal Kombat X comics (see our review here). To truly understand all the events going on, it requires a working knowledge of the events depicted in the Story Mode of the Injustice games as well as other contemporary crossover comics.
In some instances, the comic raises more questions than it answers. For example, He-Man’s mother (Queen Marlena) spent some time on Earth, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Was this the same Earth that is now under a tyrannical Superman’s control? The parallel Earth that Batman and Green Arrow are from? A different Earth altogether? To be fair, this is just the first issue, and there are five more to answer questions such as this!
In the long run, it will be interesting to see if any of the events that occur in this series will have an impact on future story developments. Since this series follows up to a Thundercats crossover, it seems reasonable that future He-Man adventures may make reference to this series. Of bigger concern to this audience will be if anything here affects the Injustice franchise. Could He-Man debut as a future guest character in Injustice 2? Could this comic be required reading to fully understand the events depicted in Injustice 3, when that is eventually released?
One other thing worth noting: The digital format appears more or less the same as the print book. This is a departure from the regular Injustice comics, in which the digital version is specially formatted for a widescreen reading.
Being the first crossover between Injustice and another franchise, it opens the door to a lot of possibilities! Perhaps if this is successful, others may follow suit.
What types of things would you like to see in this series? What character battles are you looking forward to the most? What other Injustice crossovers would you like to see, going forward? Register and share your thoughts on the DC Universe Injustice forum!
Digitized live-action graphics defined Mortal Kombat in its seminal incarnation, but many of the series' most iconic characters began life as design sketches by franchise co-creator John Tobias!
This weekend Tobias will discuss klassic digitized characters at San Diego Comic-Con [full story], but the talented artist also recently shared a mix of MK drawings from more recent eras! These include character sketches of Reptile and Liu Kang, as well as uncolored pencils from the official Mortal Kombat versus DC Universe comic book!
The prodigal son made his much publicized return to Mortal Kombat in 2008, drawing the heroes and villains of colliding worlds for the Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe Kollector's Edition. The comic book ended a nine year hiatus from his co-creation, which Tobias and Boon discussed in a promotional featurette.
The images shared via Twitter (@therealsaibot) show uncolored interior pencils of Superman slugging Sub-Zero in the Fortress of Solitude, and Shang Tsung standing amongst the Tarkatan hordes of Outworld. On the finished page, Tsung and his minions are facing off with Wonder Woman and an army of Amazon Warriors.
A character sketch of Liu Kang drawn "a few years ago" was also shared to Instagram (@therealsaibotoo), showing the Shaolin warrior monk in his belted MKvsDC design. Speaking to his creation's origins, Tobias adds, "we should all take a hero’s journey".
The comic, with writing credit to John Vogel, elaborated on the story of Dark Kahn: a living fusion of Shao Kahn and Darkseid, whose worlds began to overlap. Though brief in pages, it also featured cameos by Goro, Johnny Cage, Aquaman, and Robin, explaining their absence from the game through cosmic disappearance.
A sketch of Reptile as he appeared in Mortal Kombat 4 rounds out the black and white offerings [below]. Though divisive among fans, the design is memorable for advancing Reptile beyond the green palette sawp of his prior, digitized appearances. It emphasized his true reptilian nature, with exposed scaly skin, and mouth of fangs.
Legendary Mortal Kombat co-creator John Tobias will be in California this weekend for 2018 San Diego Comic-Con International! He'll be part of a live panel discussion about the tech behind the arcarde trilogy, which fans can attend Sunday, July 22nd. Read on for details and what you can expect:
Warren Davis (designer/programmer of Q*bert) discusses the development and evolution of WTARG, the video digitization system he created that allowed for live actors' images to be used in most of Williams/Bally/Midway's arcade games of the 1990s, includingMortal Kombat, NBA Jam, Terminator 2, and Revolution X (featuring Aerosmith). Warren, John Tobias (co-creator Mortal Kombat), and Mark Turmell (creator of the NBA Jam series) will guide you through this golden age of game innovation through stories, photos, and videos.
Digitized! The Graphics of Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, T2, and More will feature programmer Warren Davis, whose role in creating the WTARG digitization system was vital to the creation of Mortal Kombat, and helped define a generation of games released by Midway Games, and their partners.
The panel is scheduled to take place Sunday from 11:00am to 12:00 in the Grand 9 Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina. The bay hotel is a seven minute walk from the San Diego Convention Center.
Planning to attend the con? Register to tell us all about it on the 2D Kombat Klassics forum! Help boost the signal by liking & sharing this story via Twitter and Facebook<.
