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Welcome to Episodic Content, my newsletter in which I share news about my writing and publish features and interviews about video games and other topics. Today, I'm thrilled and proud to reveal the second of two collectible covers for Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1, the first book in my trilogy about the making of Mortal Kombat games and the culture surrounding them.

Before I reveal the book's second cover, I want to explain why I needed a second cover.

Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 is a massive book. It covers all MK games released in arcades, plus home versions of some of those games, plus fan culture, plus in-depth examinations of each game's systems (also known as mechanics). Therefore, I've decided to publish the book in two editions.

The first edition, called the standard edition, is Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1. It will be available in paperback, hardcover, as an audiobook, and as a digital book you can read on any device compatible with eBooks. All versions of the book will be printed in black and white to save on printing costs, and do not include photos or screenshots. I made this decision to save on printing costs. Again, this book is massive; it will be expensive to print, and cutting images will reduce the cost of printing, packaging, and shipping to you, the reader.

The second edition is called Ultimate Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1, with the title being a wink and a nod to MK3's upgrade. Ultimate tells the same story as the standard edition, but is available in an oversized book with dozens of full-color game screenshots and photographs submitted by lifelong fans of Mortal Kombat. This edition will also be expensive to print, but will be a must-have for collectors.

I wanted to differentiate both editions so each would be easily recognizable and understood by fans. One way is by their size: the standard edition will be 6"x9", while Ultimate will be larger, approximately 8.5"x11". Another, more obvious way is by giving each book unique cover artwork. Both covers were painted by Adrian Doan Kim Carames, a phenomenal artist I met last year.

I met Adrian in 2021 when I contracted him to paint a cover for an upcoming fantasy novel for young adults. After that, I commissioned him to paint two covers for Monsters in the Dark, my book about the making of the original X-COM game for PC.

Adrian is a consummate professional. He's ready with ideas, but can also bring the visions in my head to life as cover artwork that perfectly captures the spirit of each story. For Ultimate Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1, I wanted a scene that captured the darker vibe of certain MK games, namely MK1, MKII, and MK4. I also wanted to play with the rivalry between fans of fighting game franchises, particularly Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Now, I love both series and many other fighting games, so the point of the cover was not to provoke fans of either franchise, but to appeal to players who know these characters.

As with the standard edition's cover art, the first stage of the process was communicating my vision to Adrian. Here's what I sent him:

Long Live Mortal Kombat is a trilogy exploring the creation of and fan community surrounding the Mortal Kombat franchise. The first book covers series entries released during the arcade era. Using Mortal Kombat characters and settings is kind of gray area. Our first cover focused on arcades. For this cover, I want to evoke that same feeling of nostalgia, but with a spin on a popular scene from the first Mortal Kombat.

This cover will be an arcade screen. We should see the cabinet borders on either side and, below, the control panels. The borders and control panel shouldn't take up too much real estate, just enough so readers know they're staring at a screen. The scene depicted is of the bottom of the Pit from Mortal Kombat: spikes shooting up from cement, their hooks topped and coated with rusted blood. In the background, we see columns covered in spikes, almost like the interior of an Iron Maiden.

There are bodies on the spikes, but these are the bodies of characters from other fighting games that Mortal Kombat has dispatched over the years. I don't want to rip these characters off explicitly; we'll show details that will make their identities obvious to readers. For instance, a Japanese man in a karate gi with a red head band (Ryu from Street Fighter).

On the front cover, we show the title, subtitle, and author name. The font should video game-esque, as if it's in-game text showing the winner's name, score, "FATALITY," etc. The scene should spill over the spine and back cover. Maybe the spine should be a big spike with the title, author name, etc. written in blood?

On the back cover, perhaps we could pan up, so to speak, to the bridge over the spikes and show a Liu Kang-esque figure (or Scorpion, or Sub-Zero…) with his back to the reader as if walking away in victory, ready for the next challenge.

Once Adrian had my vision guide, the next step was for Adrian to consider my vision and determine the best way to go about bringing it to life. This raised the first complication: My vision worked great as a concept, as an idea, but would be difficult to adapt to paper. Here's what Adrian wrote to me:

Love the idea! It's very hardcore, pretty much MK style. I'm only worried about the illustration extending to the back side, since we would be showing some of the arcade too, it might be tricky. I've done some super quick sketches to explain myself better. The last one could show both but I don't know for sure if it will read as an arcade. What do you think?

Here are his draft sketches:

Drafts 1 and 3 were the closest to my vision, but seeing Adrian's sketches crystalized the concern he raised in his email. Namely, if I wanted a seamless scene—a tableau that spans the front and back covers—how would that scene break out of the confines of an arcade cabinet?

The more I studied the drafts, the more convinced I was that draft 2 was the right direction. Here's what I told Adrian:

I see what you mean. I worried about that too but wanted to get your take. Let’s cut the arcade motif entirely and let the scene stretch its legs. I’d still like the other elements such as font choices and text positioning to be suggestive of playing a game, but don’t worry about the visual style matching that. Go wild and have fun with it.

The next step was for Adrian to take the atmosphere of draft B and come up with colorized drafts for me to choose from. Here's what Adrian wrote to me, and the drafts he sent:

I've prepared 3 different drafts for this edition. I went with the same concept: other franchise characters being annihilated by MK characters. I've used other 2 popular stages and kept Fake Ryu as the main target.

You'll notice Adrian veered away from the Pit concept in two of the three drafts. That was fine by me because it was part of Adrian's job. He's an artist, and I didn't want to restrict him to a specific environment or character. His choice of stages was perfect, but I felt the Pit stage was the most iconic, and went with draft A. Seeing a character fall from the bridge and be impaled on spikes is something every Mortal Kombat fan from the arcade era will never forget. I knew image would stir memories and strong emotions when you, the reader, saw it.

Finally, here's the finished cover:

Beautiful, isn't it? In a macabre sort of way.

Let's break this down. First, I'm a big believer in thematic design. Just as the standard edition's cover captured the atmosphere of an arcade, I wanted the elements of Ultimate's cover to evoke Mortal Kombat's Pit. You'll notice that the book's spine contains a larger spike, as if in the scene's foreground, bearing my name, the book title, and the publisher logo.

Second, I loved Adrian's idea of hiding articles of clothing and bits of corpses as Easter eggs. The character being impaled is the most recognizable, but can you place the other characters from their franchises?

Last, I want to bring up a point my graphic designer, who's also my wife, mentioned to me. She loves Adrian's work, but was (and still is) concerned fans might be confused why Ryu from Street Fighter is being impaled on a book with "Mortal Kombat" in the title. I explained that fans of fighting games will appreciate the references to SF and other franchises, but she thinks moving the MK character from the back cover to the front may ease confusion.

I disagreed and stuck to the design Adrian and I worked out together. The reason is simple: The Ultimate edition of Long Live MK: Round 1 is targeted at super fans, those who love these worlds so much they know every character, every setting, every plotline, and every allusion to characters from other games they likely also enjoy (though perhaps not as much as Mortal Kombat).

The cover appeals to me as a super-fan of fighting games, and I'm convinced anyone at or above my level of fandom will get the joke. If I'm wrong, I promised my wife she would be the first to hear me utter the words, "You were right," which she always enjoys hearing. (Please, MK fans, don't let me be wrong!)

As a bonus, I've included the full cover as a wallpaper. It adorns one of my monitors and brings a smile to my face—albeit a macabre sort of smile.

Once again, my collaboration with Adrian yielded magnificent results. I'm proud of both covers and hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Long Live Mortal Kombat: Round 1 – The Fatalities and Fandom of the Arcade Era is the massive (approximately 205,000 words) first installment of the "LLMK" series. The book covers the arcade era of the franchise, from the genesis (pun intended) of the first MK through MK4's revision 3.0 update in arcades.

Long Live MK comprises four sections, one for each of the four main installments of the series' arcade era. Every section features several types of chapters:

• making-of sections written based on deep research and lengthy interviews with developers such as John Tobias and folks from Acclaim, as well as high-level players who break down each game's mechanics;

• arcade sections where you'll hear firsthand from individuals who pumped tens of thousands of quarters into coin-op cabinets; and

• kommunity-oriented sections that share the stories of fans whose lives were changed by Mortal Kombat, and in many cases, through the bonds they've formed with one another.

I've interviewed over 60 individuals to write Long Live MK: Round 1, and you'll hear from all of them. You'll also share in their passion for MK by reading their stories and getting a look at pictures from their collection that they were kind enough to share with me.

Long Live MK will be available in print and digital formats later this year, and promises to be the most comprehensive exploration of Mortal Kombat in any medium, ever.

That brings another issue of Episodic Content to a close. If you haven't subscribed to Episodic Content yet, make sure you click the link below, and share this issue with your friends, especially if they're Mortal Kombat fans.

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