Americana

WANT lots of American pro wrestling history (written in Japanese), featuring some cool historic illos? You can find it here. Not sure if these are scans from a manga or an original web comic.

Some kinky pro-wrestling fun here.

El Campeon cameo

ON A dare, I'm ploughing through the past 28 issues of Savage Dragon sitting in my study (thanks, Erik). Hit Savage Dragon #137 (Image, Aug. 2008) today and read a team-up tale featuring Madman and The Amazing Joy Buzzards. Of course, the Buzzards' protector, luchador El Campeon, makes a brief cameo.

Shit story though.

McBlack's back

McBLACK is an Aussie graphic novel that can be bought on Amazon.com, but I wouldn't bother as it's been serialised at http://www.mcblack.com. And, frankly, it's not very good.

Here's the blurb I found on McBlack: "Jason Franks writes and pencils the adventures of Whiteface McBlack featuring cyborg biker hippies, a former pro-wrestler now monster truck dealer, Irish paramilitary cannibals and more. Action packed comics from Mr Franks."

Anyway, I've run a coupla pages of the wrestler chatting to McBlack. So there ya go.

An Earthquake is coming

I DON'T know where this pic is from...I found it on the Death Valley Driver messageboard.

Cool, isn't it?

(But why are Bananas In Pyjamas in the crowd?)

The things I do to be a completist...

I'D seen this mag advertised in the back of pro wrestling mags for years, but I finally picked it up via Lone Star. ThunderGirls #1 (P&I Press, 1997) is the sorta comic that makes you wonder about the mindset of the people involved in its production.

Pro rassler/fetish rassler/model/whatever Lady Victoria stars in the main strip, a B&W effort titled "Ring Of The Vampires" (writer: Adams/artist: Scott Dervish). It's kidnapped wrestler vs sexy female vampire queen in the lamest battle one can imagine.

The back-up strip is "Front Row Rumble" (writer: Adams/artist: JG...what's with this people being too ashamed to put their real names to this stuff?) where two sexy fans clash at ringside and brawl into the ring, much to the consternation of the real wrestlers. It's mildly amusing.

There are also a couple of text stories and a fumetti ("Queen Of The Ring"), which could've come straight from a 1970s Apter mag.

The end result of reading ThunderGirls #1 is a feeling of uncomfortable weirdness.

I can imagine the men who put this mag together furiously beating off at the drawing board (or computer), then paying some unemployed female body builder to beat them up in their living room afterwards.

Strongman (SLG Publishing, 2009) came out with little fanfare, but is a surprisingly entertaining read that deserved more attention.

Luchador/nocturnal crime-fighter/movie star Tigre (basically, Santo in a different mask) was a Mexican wrestling god during the late 60s and early 70s until a shocking tragedy ended it all.

Twenty-five years later, Tigre's a washed-up jobber, wrestling for booze money while living rough in New York. But his life gets turned upside-down when a beautiful woman comes to him for help and he's forced to confront the nightmare that destroyed his life in 1973.

This digest-sized graphic novel was a fun read. Writer Charles Soule packs in a ton of stuff: wrestling, illegal organ transplants, cannibalism and betrayal. Allen Gladfelter's art is delightfully competent, clean and no-nonsense.

I really dug Strongman - I hope we see more of him in the future.

World Wrestling...Entertainment Weekly

ONE of my fave indy cartoonists Kagan McLeod - he of Infinite Kungfu notoriety - is regularly getting illos published in EW mag these days. Good for you, Kagan.

In the March 14, 2008 ish, he illustrated a piece titled "The Pop Culture Throw-Down!" - featuring pro'n'con arguments on several pop culture issues including 'The X-Files' is better than 'Lost' & Bob Dylan sings better than Kelly Clarkson. Kagan decided to use a pro-wrestling motif for his illos. Above is his take on Dylan vs Clarkson. Brilliant stuff!