Street Fighter: The Ultimate Edition

daaaamn! each book may look like a bible, then!

Renting comics?.... you....can rent comics?

Hi Parka,

How is the binding of these 2 huge books? I'm a little worried about UDON Books. They have very bad binding most of the time. Thanks

Hey there!

Matt here from UDON. You shouldn't have to worry about any binding problems. We were worried about this too, so our printer came up with a new binding technique to prevent spine creasing and page-fallout on these thick Ultimate editions.

Basically, there are two covers. The inner cover is blank, to which the pages are glued at the spine. The outer cover is the one featuring the cover artwork. The two covers are glued together on the sides near the spine, but there is no glue on the actual spine itself. This allows the inner spine to bend inward, and the outer spine to bend slightly outward at the same time.

Sounds complicated, but look at it in person and you will understand.

Matt Moylan
Managing Editor
UDON Entertainment

Hello,

I received this huge book (SF) from amazon.ca today and I have to say that i'm suprise that the binding is not so bad. It's a first for UDON :)

However, for some reason, they have decided to not numbered the pages. For a book this big, It is hard to come back for a specific page without page number.

Overall, A very decent book. The art are awesome. Alvin Lee is one of my favorite artist. He did most of the drawing here. I'm getting the second book for sure...

Hi Matt Moylan,

The problem (bad binding) is still there. Alfter a short reading session, the pages doesn't glue with the inner cover anymore. I just can't understand why UDON can't come up with a good book binding. Street Fighter Tribute is the only UDON book I have (and I have many UDON Books) that the pages hasn't broke at the spine YET. UDON should use the same technique as other books does.

Books like "The Art of Top Cow", Exotique & Exposé series, Jim Lee "Icons" just to name a few as very good binding. I come back to these book all the time and the binding is still in perfect shape..

PLEASE FIX THIS PROBLEM... I really like UDON's art.

Thanks for you input anon.

We haven't heard of any other issue with the Ultimate Editions, so it's possible you got a bad copy, which is possible in every print run. We do though try to keep track of these comments when we hear about them.

As for the other books you mentioned, I don't know about the art of top cow, but Icons: Jim Lee is a hardcover book so not really a fair comparison.

PS: if you have binding problems with any UDON book, please send pictures of the spine to fans@udoncomics.com. This will helps us figure out exactly what the problem is, if it is isolated or persistent, and how to prevent it in the future.

Hello Matt,

As you requested, I just sent a few pictures of the problem (fans@udoncomics.com). I don't believe a got a bad copy since they are exactly the same as the other UDON Books I have except for the inner cover that doesn't help at all. The problem is that the spine holding the page doesn't bend at all. It should be flexible, otherwise it will simply crack and pop out.

You were right about Jim Lee: ICONS. It is a hardcover book. Still, the other books mentioned were all softcover. And yet, they have no binding problem after heavy use. I was wondering how is the binding of the hardcover edition of the Street Fighter: The Ultimate Edition. If you can provide us pictures of the book that will be great. I plan to get one but the price difference it's so huge I really hope it's worth the high price.

Thank you.

parka, any idea where i an get this two books in SG?

Two questions?
Parka, where do you rent comics?

Is there a difference between SF Complete First Series printed with the white background and the book with the black ground?

i had bought both of those book from amazon. but because those book are too thick. So that, when i read the book. the pages are pulled out the spine. (i don't know if it is the quality of the glue or not) but i feel so unhappy, cause to me, those book are expensive and valuable too much. Reading Street fighter comics is my desire since i was child.
The same problem as Thomas below

Regarding the binding, to be honest I examined unsealed copies of both editions in two different stores in London a month after they were released and all of them have had spines removed from the cover, not floating. Seems kinda sad that the message is: if you want a decent copies spend about 300 dollars - what?- for the hardcovers, especially if you can't be bothered about the 2nd volume...

Is anyone here familiar with Bookdepository?
Can they be trusted?
Do they package the books well so they won't be damaged in the (international) mail?

Can anyone please upload a picture of the binding problem so that everyone can see exactly what it is?

You can easily upload some pictures to https://imageshack.us/ for example, and put the links here.

I want to buy the books, but this binding problem I read about here really makes me nervous about it.

Thanks!

I bought this book recently and have the binding problem (purchased through Amazon UK). I'm really careful with big comic books like this and never dare to open them more than 90 degrees. Yet with each page turn of this thing you can hear the glue cracking, and a glance at the spine reveals the pages unstuck from the inner cover. I'll try and take pics tonight.

Here's the image of the spine of my book

https://img197.imageshack.us/i/dsc01415m.jpg/

Thanks for the photo.
So pages are completely loose, and detached from the book?

I got my mind set on these books, but this spine thing is gonna mess it up for me :(
It's pretty weird, fucked up and sad that Udon is binding the books so poorly.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one!!!! Safe to say I won't be buying the second edition!!! Sad, I really wanted to...

Same thing has happened to mine...is there anything that can be done once this happens? Such a shame as I really loved the book :-(

Hi everyone, glad to see so many street fighter fans here. I would like to know whether udon has done any changes to improve the binding issues? I noticed the post is rather old, it ended on the May 29,2011 and i thought by now udon should have done something to it?

I have the intention to buy it online through US amazon but at the same time, was worried about the binding quality.

Hi Matt, so any changes done to improve the binding?

Greetings, everyone! I am an avid trade paperback collector, having been collecting all sorts of X titles for over fifteen years now, along with a whole bunch of other regular monthly comics. I have always preferred the TPB format over the single issues because of better paper and print quality, and better, more durable construction. I was absolutely thrilled when the digest collections of SFII came out,even more so when I saw the Ultimate Editions. I received the "Dark Ryu" volume I and II Ultimate Editions as Christmas gifts in 2011 from my super-awesome girlfriend. This is where the story literally starts to fall apart. The very first time I carefully opened the first one, the cover came unglued from the book. Exposing the internal gluing of the spine. Note: I am very careful with my TPBs, always making sure not to open them too far to prevent the breaking of the spine. I was extremely surprised to find the at the sections of pages of the book had started separating from the spine glue, only staying attached by the string. I then looked on amazon and other websites such as this one to find out, with much dismay, that I am not alone in this. Is this rare that this happens? Should I seek an exchange knowing that this will not happen again, or am I better off with the smaller versions?

Hey,
just wanted y'all to know that I recently purchased the Darkstalkers Utimate Collection from Udon off of Amazon...
SAME PROBLEM!
Their binding method still hasn't improved! It's unbelievable! What kind of Quality control do they have?!