Looks like WWE has a new comic book coming out. I wonder if it’ll be like when Undertaker was tombstone piledriving demons in the ring, or Lex Luger trying to blow up Sting on a boat? lol
I’ll check it out at the comic store, but it seems like it’s going to be DX vs zombies or something. If it is, I’ll gladly pass.
For more of a preview, check it out here.
It seems like it’d be easy to translate wrestling into the comic world, I mean, afterall, it’s generally a good vs. evil story with characters that are over the top like superheroes. But looking at this, I have my doubts as to its quality. Not to mention the art looks like it was done by a really lazy Rob Liefield wannabe. I’m pretty sure if humans were acutally built like that, they would just sort of topple over. Also, out of all the Divas, they pick Kelly Kelly as the only one? Kelly frickin’ Kelly? That’s good reason to pass on it right there.
Chris, I totally agree that translating wrestling to comics should be easy and I like to think I’m showing that, so I don’t get what’s up with HHH, Cena and Batista fighting leopard zombie men. I’m with you on Kelly Kelly. I understand why they picked her (cute, BLOND, face) but that’s just weak.
Rival Angels is indeed a shining example of how wrestling can work as a comic. When it gets turned into stuff like, Undertaker has to tombstone demons to send them back to hell, it’s just non-sensical. I could understand a little bit more if they just took wrestling personalities and made them into super powered entities and had them battle each other.
Actually, a Shimmer based comic would really work, half the roster writes themselves, haha. MsChif, Amazing Kong, Cat Power, Kellie Skater, Sara Del Rey, Cheerleader Melissa, it would take like 2 seconds to turn them into comic book superheroines and villainesses. Now if only I could draw… haha.
It seems this is going to be a repeat of the disasterous 90’s era comics that WWE spat out then when the in-vouge thing was OTT gore, impossible bodies (not in the standard way, I mean physically impossible, sometimes they looked like they didn’t have knee caps, the muscles were all over the place etc.) and not much has changed in thier style.
Warrior is bad enough, don’t need any more of that ilk which is unfortunatley what it looks like. It should translate well but it doesn’t as someone in the heirachy doesn’t seem to grab the fundamental concepts of comic drawing/writing. Possibly the haste to include fantasy elements no matter how assanine to poor artwork, this looks like a contender for Atop the fourth wall.
/rant
Chris, I think any wrestling themed comic by Chaos Comics (Chyna, Stone Cold, Kane, Undertaker) were horrible. I think they really tried but it was all FAIL. Don’t get me started on Kevin Nash’s masterpiece. SHIMMER would be the bomb as a comic and I’ve talked with Clickwrestle before about working together and I really hope to some time next year.
Maniac M, those were all some horrible comics. I know I’m not the best artist but some of those guys looked like art school rejects, with smoke covering their feet so they didn’t have to draw it in. Anatomy? Fogedaboutit! Ah, the Warrior comic. Jim Helwig at his best. I really blame the companies that get the WWE license for putting out crap, but WWE should know better than to go along with this crap, even if they are making money regardless. It didn’t work then, it doesn’t look like anythings changed.
I think my favourite thing so far about the whole endeavour is the header image on the wwecomics homepage. Good Ole JR looking like he just sat on a pin, and is that some kind of ginger Jerry Lawler? What on earth is that about? There’s a grand total of two women in the audience, both showing off their cleavage, but Christopher Daniels – sitting behind the girl in pink – looks unimpressed. Maybe he’s just upset that even though WWE is sexist, hypocritical and seemingly obsessed with pouring money into doomed ventures, it’s still marginally more entertaining than the company he works for. Or maybe he just wishes she’d turn around.
Time to come clean. I first found Rival Angels when I had an idea for a wrestling comic (web or otherwise) and was looking to see if any already existed. Rival Angels is awesome of course, botchedspot is pretty amusing, and Diabolito Del Ring looks cute, although I haven’t got around to reading it yet. But this is the second* best print comics can up with? At least it looks better than Warrior’s lunacy, or that ridiculous Rob Zombie thing… it’s like The Crow, but he’s a wrestler! Urgh.
And I’ve just realised! From the artwork released so far, it seems both Batista and Punk are faces in the comic. Way to keep up with current events, Titan!
This is really, really making me think about picking up the pencils again and venturing into the field of wrestling comics. It could hardly be worse than anything WWE puts out.
* Link to an absolute must read for wrestling and comics fans, co-scripted by Scott Levy. http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/07/20/a-year-of-cool-comic-book-moments-day-201/
Oh yeah, gotta love the guy over Daniels’ shoulder who’s wearing a tweed jacket to a wrestling show. Classy.
Stygimoloch, if I were JR, I’d be way disappointed in how they drew him. 😛 Not sure who the red head dude is. It can’t be Lawler, can it? Of course, all girls at a wrestling show are chicks with big racks that like to show them off. XD though I must confess, every chick I’ve ever known that had a big rack, always showed it off. It’s like, what else is the point? Anywho, the Daniels guy almost looks like a priest! As far as Punk and Batista go, who know what they’re thinking. I bet they’re not even considering current, future or past storylines. I mean the first story has to do with… the Shadowking?
You listed some great wrestling comics. Jesse (Diablito) and I are working on a jam piece right now! I just have to color it up. 😉 Are you familiar with Headlocked? Another great wrestling comic that doesn’t come out nearly as much as I’d like. It’d be awesome if you started your own wrestling webcomic. I’d read it. 😉
Good looking out on the Raven/Spidey comic! I read my buddy’s copy once upon a time, but that’s awesome that’s the story is available like that.
I’ve worked it out, the ginger guy’s a cameraman. He’s pretty much identical to the other cameraman, whom I’d assumed was filming the girl in the pink shirt (Khali’s Kiss Cam maybe? lol) , but on second viewing I think they’re both filming JR. From what I can gather so far, the blonde guy who falls face-first into the lava pool is Kane, and the dark demon guy he’s fighting (is that the Shadow King?) is Undertaker. Oh god, they’ll probably tie it into the old Undertaker comic!
I think I’ve heard of Headlocked. Was that the one Lawler did the cover art for? I’ll have to check it out some time. Oh and I really should have bumped this WWE thing further down the list of print comics – I forgot about the print version of Rival Angels! My apologies.
I’ve got characters and stories sketched out… two different sets of stories in fact, for the same characters. One a fairly traditional webcomic in the PvP/Penny Arcade vein, the other more serious and focused on the characters’ backstage lives. Or I could combine them, into something kinda like Questionable Content if the main characters were wrestlers rather than hipsters XD! I just need to work on making my art halfway presentable lol.
Yeesh, we certainly went through a lot of trouble in ID’ing everyone. LOL Ah, at least it makes it more passable. Dude, don’t even put that out in the ether that they go back to the earlier WWF stories. XD
Yep, Lawler did the cover to Headlocked! Lawler and Mike Kingston do a lot of shows together and they’re both really cool guys. I even have a picture with them in around the site. 😛
I think you got a great idea for a wrestling comic. I think I remember a comic that was going to come out, Spotfest or something, but nothing ever came of it. I believe that was going to be like Penny Arcade, but as far as I know the field’s wide open. Which is really for any genre really. Looking forward to it!
You know what would work as a comic? The totally awesome adventures of Edge and Christian. A sort of Deadpoolish thing.
Wacky Hijinks!
Those guys were pretty funny when they were together, but I don’t know if it would work today. Still, I really think they need to do something together when Edge gets back.
I vaguely remember seeing an old WWF (iirc it was still that at the time) comic in the newsagents- I flicked it open and the ‘story’ opened with the Undertaker hijacking a schoolbus. For no adequately explained reason.
Sadly, the idea didn’t Rest In Peace, it seems.
LOL. Ugh, it’s so sad it’s funny.