Pro Wrestling Themed Comics, Wrasslin' Comic Books, Pro Wrestlers Comic Books

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I really dig that swipe...

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Tarzan was apparently a big fan of pro wrestling and liked to try out his moves on his jungle friends.

 

And check out this anklelock:

 

*WHAMMY* Textbook technique!

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I really dig that swipe.

Homage, ectually. Yes, indubitably so.

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Lucha Libre - Image has launched a new series featuring strips based on

the wonderful wacky world of Mexican wrestling including Bill & Jerry Frissen’s

The Luchadores 5 (who were first seen in Metal Hurlant),

Tequila (Gobi & Jerry Frissen), Profesor Furia (Witko & Inès Vargas),

The Tikitis (Fabien M.) and Los Luchadoritos (Tanquerelle & Jerry Frissen).

The comic’s oversized and overpriced but I kinda like it,

so take Doc Riot’s professional advice and check it out now.

 

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The Umbrella Academy #1 (Dark Horse): Gerard Way is the lead singer of emo band

My Chemical Romance – personally, I’d rather listen to wrestling rockers Beauregarde,

Michael Hayes and Jimmy Valiant. Hell, even Freddie Blassie. Now, the fella’s teamed up with

artist Gabriel Bá to do this superhero comic. The first two pages features pro-wrestling.

“Tusslin’ Tom” Gurney hits a space squid with a flying elbow and bizarre, angsty stuff then happens.

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Action Comics #372 (c.1969): Superman gets amnesia

and becomes The Masked Superman, a psychotic masked wrestler.

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Patsy And Hedy #11 (c.1953): This Atlas romance comic has a nice wrestling-themed cover.

Not sure if there was a linked story inside, but I assume there was.

Some may know that in the mid-70s Patsy Walker was revived by

Atlas’s successor Marvel and became Hellcat.

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Copper Age Drek - Thx, Marvel U.K.

 

MARVEL published a four-issue miniseries (Dec. 1992-Mar. 1993)

starring the far-less-entertaining Death’s Head II

(as opposed to the far-more-funny-and-entertaining Death’s Head I).

It was titled Battle Tide and also starred some Rob Liefeld rip-off called

Killpower and Wolverine.

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THERE'S a vague wrestling link in this collected edition of the three-part miniseries put out by

Dark Horse. In the tale Big Ma’s Hootenanny And Slack-Jaw Fighting (story Steve Niles, art Ryan Sook),

The Goon and Franky break up an illegal backyard zombie fighting ring

that’s loosely based on the once-huge backyard wrestling scene.

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From the pages of the briefly revived Metal Hurlant magazine comes

Lucha Libre (from Image in September). Jerry Frissen, Bill, Witko and

Tanquerelle explore the world of some down-and-out Mexican wrestlers

in this anthology based on a line of toys.

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Blue Demon (April 24, 1922–December 16, 2000)

- real name Alejandro Muñoz Moreno

 

Whoa, Nellie-Love and Rockets

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Marvel and DC comic book artist Ken Landgraf

8 1/2" x 11", watercolour on Bristol paper.

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The Promotion feels gritty and REAL - and it does something very few other wrestling comics have tried to do and that's look at the backstage dramas between promoters and the larger-than-life personalities who worked for them during the territorial days.

 

While you see some recognisable faces - Murdoch and Ric Flair, for example - the comic is entirely fictional yet totally believable. Rob's spot-on dialogue is a big factor in that department.

 

Rob describes The Promotion as "a fictional drama based around a wrestling promotion in 1970s' Kansas City...a Mad Men of professional wrestling". That sounds reasonable to me.

 

Having recently read the autobiographies of both Harley Race and Gary Hart, a lot in this comic rang true...to the point that I wondered whether Rob has some friends "in the biz" - possibly even from that era of pro wrestling - and he's been picking their brains.

 

The art could've been problematic if it stayed as just B&W pen art, as it's a bit rough in places. But Rob's cleverly used a watercolour-style colouring (almost like a colour wash) through the art – giving it a trippy, psychedelic 1970s feel.

 

 

A backstage look at the locker-room politics of a wrestling territory in the 1970s.

Rob Schamberger ( http://www.thewrestlingpromotion.com/ )

 

The first chapter of The Promotion can be found at http://www.thewrestlingpromotion.com/

(updated twice a week) and on http://www.myebook.com/ (first chapter available for $0.50).

Buy it at: http://thewrestlingpromotion.com/?page_id=50