

Like a lot of people, I first encountered Craig Rousseau's art on Impulse back in the 90's. And in his first issue, Craig drew the Legion of Super-Heroes, so yeah that helped make me a fan. After Impulse I followed Craig's work onto Batman Beyond, Harley Quinn, and then my personal favorite: The Perhapanauts. So when Craig (and Todd Dezago) did a Kickstarter for a new Perhapanauts graphic novel, I was all-in and pledged enough to get a commission reward. I gave Craig a few opponents to choose from for a "Karate Kid vs." commission, and he chose the mighty Mongul! And the piece Craig produced is fantastic! I love the choice of purple paper, the color marker work, and Karate Kid's look of determination. Big thanks to Craig for knocking this one out of the park!





So Mongul is super-powerful. He's taken down Superman, went toe-to-toe with a whole squad of Legionnaires, and broken out of Inertron. But so has Karate Kid. Does Mongul have a chance of winning this? Of course! But do I think that he will win? Of course not! Mongul has traditionally relied of his overwhelming strength in hand-to-hand fights, instead of actual martial skill. So if Val Armorr can stay out of Mongul's grip, and find some way to incapacitate Mongul, he'll win. I mean, Mongul has to have some kind of pressure point or something, right? Well, let's hope so, for Val's sake.





If you like this piece then please do go buy some books featuring Craig's work in either physical or digital format, and/or go commission him for yourself!