Irene Koh's Angel Arcade is about the fighting game community, emphasis on community

Irene Koh knows comics. As an artist (Koh uses she and they pronouns), they've worked for Blizzard, DC Comics, IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, and — her biggest claim to fame — partnered with Avatar co-creator Michael DiMartino for the graphic novel The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars. AKA: The book with Korra and Asami's first "on-screen" kiss. 

But after Turf Wars, Koh told Mothership, they were so burnt out and in need of a change that she very nearly stopped making any comics for eight years. And their new project is a tribute to the new passion that kept her going: Co-organizing their own local fighting game community. 

Koh's Angel Arcade kicked off in March — which is also when Mothership sat down for a phone interview with her, about the joy of comics, the power of fighting games to instill confidence, the pride of building your own community, and how Guilty Gear can be for newbs. 

Mothership: Tell me about Angel Arcade. Who are the Arcade Angels? 

Irene Koh: It's a collection of community stories and observations as told through the lens of a small community. Micah, the former arcade owner, and then GC and Gloomy who appear later. They are his former employees, now turned his home arcade assistants. And then Vijay, who is actually from an older comic of mine that I did with my husband called Neutral — which didn't get very far, because we were both very busy — but it was older fighting game community stories. 

That was more of a sports story about winning, where Vijay is the-up-and-coming new person. She was the avatar for the new player experiences, and Micah's student. Angel Arcade takes place many years later, where she's now a seasoned fighting game player competing on the big stage. I liked that idea from Neutral, and that's sort of where Angel Arcade came from. I wanted to depict more of the new player experiences, the community experiences.