Newsstand Cover
A tradition long lacking from the comics shelves — wrestling comics! — is being remedied by Titan publishing. The increasingly comics active UK-based publisher launches WWE Heroes in March, with scripting by Keith Champagne and art by Andy Smith. At least 20 issues are planned, featuring Triple H®, Undertaker®, Randy Orton®, Batista®, Shawn Michaels®, Big Show®, John Cena®, CM Punk®, Kane®, Edge®, Chris Jericho®, Matt Hardy®, Rowdy Roddy Piper™, Carlito™, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler® and Kelly Kelly®. Only one diva? Well, like Garth Ennis puts it, there must always be “The Female®”.

The first storyline involves these WWE Superstars going up against an ancient evil and demon spawn and blah blah and as you can see from the cover there is an old fashioned baseball bat beatdown involved. Frankly, we’d rather read a book in which The Hardy Brothers and Hurricane Helms go on an all-night quest to find a Cracker Barrel®.

Chris Sims has more analysis in a post entitled Titan’s WWE Comics Will Most Likely Be Terrible.

ladygagacomicbook• It looks like another real life superhero, Lady Gaga also has her own comic, drawn by Brian Einersen and sold exclusively at Marc by Marc Jacobs stores. It’s an ongoing “Lady Saga”…saga. While a WWE Superstars® Lady Gaga® team up comic would be really great, it seems this comics is drawn in a slightly different style than the grappling pamphlets so we may need to regroup on this one.

1 COMMENT

  1. I pity the people working on a WWE licensed comic. They used to plan months ahead (to build to the biggest matches), but these days they make it up as they go along, and they tend to panic and switch direction on a whim. Keeping in synch with the parent product will be tricky, to put it mildly.

    That said: the fact that Titan is trying to pick up US licences and produce original comics is actually a story worth noting.

  2. Is that Lady Gaga comic a joke? It looks like an amateur-hour freebie sampler that would be forced into your hand by a teenager at SPX, not something from a legit pop star and sold at a trendy boutique. Now there’s a missed opportunity…

  3. Okay, the thing to remember with Lady Gaga is that 90% of her weirdness is intended as a statement of some kind (even if it makes no sense to the rest of humanity), large chunks are ironic (good luck figuring out which ones) and she has a background in cracked-out performance art (literally and figuratively).

    So, who here is surprised that her comic’s art style is an amatueresque version of underground comix style?

  4. I was just tweeting the other day that I’m surprised Bluewater hasn’t announced a Female Force comic for Lady Gaga yet. I mean, she’s actually someone who would translate well into a comic, plus it would give that line a bit of pizzazz. Right now, Bluewater’s schedule looks like comics you’d buy for your grandmother. Rather, they’re the books you put on top of your fanboy stack, so your female friends/relatives won’t think all mainstream comics are T&A. Seriously, though: who’s going to be caught dead buying a Barbara Walters comic? She’s not even topical.

  5. I have to agree with Paul above. Who here remembers the attempt by Marvel to do a WCW comic (pre-Monday Night Wars) that featured Lex Lugar on the cover of issue #1…right as he left WCW to work for Vince’s World Bodybuilding Federation.

    It looks like they’ll be able avoid some of the problems with out of date angles and face/heel turns with the wrestlers vs demons plot. Here’s hoping they don’t run into things like major arcs with guys who (a) get hurt (b) have a “wellness policy” violation or (c) opt to test the TNA waters when their current deal expires.

  6. I wish that I could steer every one that wanted to read the WWE comic into reading WHOA NELLIE by Jaime Hernandez or SONAMBULO by Rafael Navarro, great lucha-related comics.

  7. Kate – I get what you’re saying, but I still feel like it’s a big missed opportunity. I think of what could have been with someone like Paul Pope or Brendan McCarthy (not that those two in particular would be interested, but, you know – someone who can actually DRAW and has an aesthetic that seems to match Gaga’s…whatever that might be at the moment).

  8. Kate – I get what you’re saying, but I still feel like it’s a big missed opportunity. I think of what could have been with someone like Paul Pope or Brendan McCarthy (not that those two in particular would be interested, but, you know – someone who can actually DRAW and has an aesthetic that seems to match Gaga’s…whatever that might be at the moment).

  9. Wrestling comics have always been stupid.

    But a Lady Gaga comic book!! O.o

    :)

    Bluewater needs to get on this asap!

  10. Who knew this was a growing market??? Between Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss and Lady Gaga’s comic it would seem that the market for fashion-industry parodies is more than well-served.

    I think a meeting between Lady Gaga and Dave would be Highly Amusing.

    Oh, and Rowdy Roddy Piper in WWE comics??? ^_^

  11. Wrestling comics are stupid because they try to mix wrestling with….well anything that’s not wrestling related. LIke the comic where Lex Luger tried to blow up a boat with Sting on it or Undertaker tombstone piledriving demons in a ring and sending them back to hell.

    Of course, there are a couple of good indy wrestling comics like Headlocked, Diablito Del Ring and if its not too cheeky of me to say, Rival Angels (the #1 wrestling webcomic!)

    I was interested in the Lady Gaga comic until I saw the art. Sorry, but you’ll need more than Bendis and crayon drawing to get me to buy a book, though Jinx was a great comic read.