Keep an eye out for...

NEW comic Headlocked: Tryout from Markosia. Ask your local comic shop for ordering details.

I'll have a review up soon (I hope).

BPJr #2 is out now...on PDF

BPJr #2 - filled with big booties, Jack Kirby, Steve Gerber, wrestling, Deal Or No Deal and more T&A than is healthy - is finished and ready to be sent out…as a PDF.

Yes, Australia Post has finally battered me into submission. I can’t afford the ridiculous postal costs for what is essentially a vanity project/hobby.

So here’s how it goes. You’re on my mailing list. Please e-mail me at danhelen@idx.com.au and let me know how you want BP sent to you. There are three options:

1. Printable PDF: You can print this out at work or at home. As this issue was created in A5 format (before I changed my mind about having it printed), it’s laid out as if it was going on a photocopier. That means it’s a little difficult to follow in places. However, like I said, if you want to print it out so you can have a hard copy, then this is the best format.

2. Readable PDF: All 24 A5 pages will be sent to you in order, from 1 to 24, with no wacky page layouts to worry about.

3. Hard copy: If you don’t have access to a printer or you can’t read a PDF, then let me know and I’ll send you a hard copy. This is extremely limited as I printed only 20 copies to sell at the Newcastle Young Writers Festival. Any left over will be mailed out to people who ask for them. Once they’re gone, I won’t be printing any more. So get in early if this is the version you want.

Payment? I don’t know. How do you pay for a PDF? I’ll leave it up to you. I don’t think money’s the right thing to ask for. I’m always interested in reading cool zines, comics, magazines, books or seeing interesting DVDs. Burn me something. Hell, e-mail me something if you like.

However, if you want a hard copy, then that will cost US$5 (including airmail postage and handling). I’ll accept only Paypal (no cash, money orders or cheques will be accepted, sorry) and please use dlennard@acp.com.au when making payment. Thanks.

OK. Any queries? Drop me a line.

Oh, and although this is obvious, please state in your e-mail that you’re over 18 years of age. Thanks.

Cheers,

Dann Lennard

Editor

BPJr/Betty Paginated

Franklin Richards: Summer Smackdown!

IN THE cute opening yarn to this one-shot put together by Chris Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak, The Thing has agreed to do a charity bout for the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation (as first seen in his own solo series from the 1980s).

He brings along Franklin and his pet robot H.E.R.B.I.E. Unfortunately, The Thing's opponent Thunder is actually a super-villain seeking revenge against the Fantastic Four.

Luckily, Franklin comes to the rescue with a secret weapon stolen from his dad's laboratory.

Problem solved.

This is a nice one-shot - I'd recommend it to any parent who has kids.

HEADLOCKED news

HERE'S the info from creator Michael Kingston:

Jerry Lawler To Paint Comic Book Cover!

WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry “The King” Lawler has signed on to provide a cover for the critically acclaimed comic book series, Headlocked: The Tryout from AAM/Markosia and Visionary Comics Studio. Lawler’s fully painted cover will grace the first issue of the new mini-series, available now for pre-order in Diamond’s Previews and shipping in October. (Diamond Order Code: AUG083662)

Read the press release here.

The book is available for pre-order from July 30^th to August 27^th. Because Headlocked is an independent comic book, it's recommended you pre-order a copy as not all retailers order indy comics. And being that this issue features Jerry Lawler’s first published comic book work, this will definitely be a highly sought-after comic once it hits the shelves. Reserve your copy today at your local comic book store.

As a special promotion to help get people on board with the story, AAM/Markosia is putting the first issue, Headlocked: Work of Art online for people to read absolutely free.

For more information, please visit www.myspace.com/mike_kingston or www.facebook.com/pages/Headlocked/11313203558.

Etta Candy in Wonder Woman

WE'RE talking about the Golden Age Etta Candy here. The tubby lil' sidekick who said, "Woo! Woo!" a lot.

Anyways, in Thompson & Lupoff's The Comic-Book Book, there's an essay on Wonder Woman - "Of (Super) Human Bondage" - in which author and WW fan Juanita Coulson writes this curious passage:

"Etta Candy started as a six-foot lady wrestler. But perhaps that scene and others bothered [WW creator William Moulton Marston], because Etta rapidly lost a foot of height and turned into an unmenacing pudgy little [character]...forever eating and screeching, 'Woo! Woo!'"

So there you have yet another tenuous wrestling-and-comics link.

Fucken Jimmy Olsen

FUCKEN Jimmy Olsen as "Elastic Lad" fights "The Ugly Superman"? Holy fuck.
This was published in April 1968...and probably shouldn't have been.

Lothar wrestles in Mandrake The Magician

I READ about this little gem in the classic The Comic-Book Book (1973, reprinted 1998) by Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff. Dick O'Donnell's essay "It's Magic" enthuses greatly about Mandrake The Magician's earliest newspaper adventures, written by Lee Falk and illustrated by Phil Davis. He discusses one of Mandrake's earliest adventures, 'The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers', which first ran in US newspapers from February 3 to May 26, 1935.

Dick discusses one sequence where the magician's large Nubian manservant Lothar is forced to wrestle "the champion of the murderers" above a flaming pit. Naturally, Lothar wins. And Mandrake saves the doomed wrestler from a fiery death by levitating him to safety.

Amazingly, I found this art sequence (albeit, the Italian translated version) at the excellent Mandrake The Magician blog.

And here it is. Enjoy.

Blood And Alcohol

WHOA! How could I forget this misanthropic classic from WA's D. Rat? His 2000 A5 comic was full of one-page toons and a few strips that featured - in between the limbless naked chicks and Nazi symbols - a masked wrestler. So there you go. Not sure what became of the dude. Liked his artwork tho.

Ayre farce

IT’LL never appear or, if it does, it’ll disappear without a trace – a lot like BodogFIGHT itself – but ex-Bodog boss and billionaire Calvin Ayre will supposedly star in a new graphic novel called Ayre Force.
It’s a tenuous link for this blog – but MMA’s an offshoot of pro wrestling and, besides, Ayre Force features three of my fave things: MMA fighters, tattooed rocker Bif Naked and sexy-as poker player Evelyn Ng.

MMA athlete Tara Larosa...

...indy rocker Bif Naked...

...sexy pro poker player Evelyn Ng

They are part of a covert ops unit involved in a war with evil corporation Wintercorp, led by the sinister Janus Winter.
Ayre’s got some reasonably heavy hitters on board to produce Ayre Force including writers Adam Slutsky (Maxim, Bluff) and Joseph Phillip Illidge (Batman) and artist Shawn Martinbrough (Batman: Detective Comics, World War Hulk: Frontline).
For all the bullshit hype, more art and info, head to www.bodoglife.net/ayreforce.
And for a more critical look at Ayre, check out this article.

Calvin.......oooooooh, he's so tough

I don't like John Byrne, but this is fuckin' crazy

FROM John Byrne's web site (byrnerobotics.com) on April 11:

HEADING: Well, that was fun
"Got a call from Paul Kupperberg yesterday. Apparently the WWE has decided that kids don't read comics (is Joe Quesada working for them as a consultant?) so all the strips are being dropped from the magazine.
And Paul has been fired."

"I have to say this is upsetting. Not only because it leaves a guy like Paul Kupperberg out of a job, but the fact that the magazine publisher falls into the same stereotype that most people have about wrestling fans. That their fans, which is largely made up by children, don't like to read. It is a magazine for crying out loud! They would have to read the articles, why not a fun comic strip putting their favorite wrestlers in fantastic situations? Is this thing just going to be 80 pages of pictures and no captions? It also amazes me they wouldn't have waited for the first few issues of their new childrens magazine to actually be published and read by their fans, before making such a decision.
••
Discussing this with Paul, I noted that there is more to it than simple economics or "kids don't read" mentality. Some things simply do not cross over into other forms. Sports are high on that list. Billions of dollars spent every year, in this country alone, on sports of all kinds, yet if we take all the thousands upon thousands of comics published in the last 75 years or so, how many of them were sports oriented? And of the few that were, how many were successful.
Same with movies. So many millions of miles of film, yet so few sports movies. Novels are the same. Such books/movies/TV shows etc do exist, but they are by far the exception, and really successful examples are an exception to the exception.
It falls into the same category as comics based on videogames, I think. More millions spent by consumers, yet how many of those consumers want to read about the characters, instead of being the characters?"

More KROZOR...because YOU didn't ask for it!!

Oh...my...sweet...jesus. How utterly, utterly horrible.

I quote Comic Shop News #1085...

"Grant Morrison & JG Jones deliver more surprises in DC's Final Crisis #2. Meet Japan's No. 1 pop culture heroes, the Super Young Team and their languid leader, Most Excellent Superbat! Join legendary wrestler Sonny Sumo and super escape artist Mister Miracle as they team to face the offspring of the Anti-Life Equation...etc etc."

You know, I hate DC and I hate what it's done to its universe over the past four years.......but I may well pick up this issue. Sigh...

Krozor: how did I miss THIS one?

FROM the current issue of WWE Magazine on sale in Aussie newsstands ("The 500th Anniversary Issue") comes this little tidbit (above). How did I miss Krozor? Sounds godawful, like all those Chaos! comics put out at around that time (remember The Rock, The Undertaker, Chyna, etc? Ugh!).
Anyone got a copy of the April '97 issue they can send me, so I can review Krozor properly?