Wrestling and Comics: The Hulk meets Hulk Hogan

As everyone knows, The Incredible Hulk is a Marvel comic book character, as is The Incredible Hulk Hogan. (True, The Hulkster is listed as Hulk (Wrestler) in the Marvel Wiki. Cite here.)

When Terry Bollea started wrestling in 1977, he first competed under a mask as one of the many Super Destroyers, before trying out the names Terry Boulder and Sterling Golden. While he was a can't miss prospect in wrestling, it took him until late 1979 and input from Vince McMahon, Sr. to find the perfect name: The Incredible Hulk Hogan. 

Since Marvel's Hulk had been created and trademarked in 1962, Hulk Hogan was forced to pay license fees to Marvel for use of his name until 2005, when he outright bought the rights to the name Hulk Hogan.

In 1988 The Incredible Hulk writer Peter David had the interesting idea of switching the Hulk from green to grey (as he had actually been at the beginning) and turning him into a mob boss who called himself Joe Fixit.

So he actually wasn't even known as The Hulk when he ran into a professional wrestler who called himself "The One, The Only Hulk". Mr Fixit was not happy. And this is what followed...

First a bit of no-selling.

 

Then it turns into a squash match.

 

And then some trash talking.

Pretty cool, hmm?

Wrestling Cartoon: The Rasslin' Match - 1934

This is the oldest wrestling cartoon I have found so far. Everything I have learned about it comes from Wikipedia, so here is the gist of it: The Rasslin' Match is a 1934 animated short film produced by the Van Beuren Studios and directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos 'n' Andy.


It even has an IMDB entry, but there's not much more information to be found there, either.

Of course it is racially insensitive with lots of clichés, but it is quite funny in parts and at least shows a black guy as champion decades before Bobo Brazil, Ernie Ladd, JYD, Booker T, The Rock, etc.

Let me know what you think about it!

Wrestling Comics: Superman vs Antonino Rocca

This comic really confused me. I found it at a flea market in the mid-80s and since I had been purely brought up on Vince McMahon, Jr.'s WWF (read: HulkaMania era), I had no clue who this Antonino Rocca guy was.

Rocca as a singles wrestler and in his team with Miguel Perez, of course was a top, if not THE top star of the Capital Wrestling Corporation, the predecessor of the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF), World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

His heyday was in the 50s and he actually was involved with the New York office until his death in 1977.

The comic was published in 1962, so Rocca was probably still the top guy in the eyes of the writer, as Bruno Sammartino had not yet gained his massive popularity as WWWF Champion and NWA Champ Lou Thesz was not that visible in New York.

As so many Silver Age stories, "The Downfall of Superman" is quite silly and convoluted.

In order to trick a small time criminal to reveal where he stashed some loot, Superman enlists Rocca, Krypto and several members of the Legion of Superheroes in one of the most complicated schemes ever. The crook is a big wrestling fan and when he sees that Rocca is stronger than Superman (explained at first by Mr. Mxyzptlk using magic to enhance his strength), he hires Rocca to move a boulder that had blocked the entrance to the cave where he had hidden his loot.

Turns out it wasn't really Mr. Mxyzptlk, but Krypto in disguise with his voice provided by Superman's super-ventriloquism. The two guys Rocca is juggling around are mythic strongmen Samson and Hercules, played by adult versions of Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy. And to top it all off, Rocca wasn't really stronger than Superman, because they had simply switched identities.

It won't win an Eisner Award, but it is one of the first instances combining wrestling and comic books.

The whole story can be found here.

Wrestling Cartoons and Comics

I have always been a massive fan of professional wrestling, starting to watch shortly before WrestleMania 1 and have been an even bigger fan of comic books, newspaper strips and cartoons for even longer.

I thought it would be cool to collect the instances where wrestling and comics/cartoons overlap and I will post pictures or videos, along with more in-depth explanations (where available).

The main focus will be on published work, as even though there are some fantastic examples of fan art combining comics and wrestling, quite a few are strongly in the gay bondage section (not that there's anything wrong with that.

If you find other instances of comics/cartoons/newspaper strips depicting wrestling scenes, wrestlers, or the business, please let me know.

All images are property and © their respective owners and license holders.