Wrestling and Comic Strips: Doonesbury

Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury is far more highbrow than the average comic book, often focusing on political issues, but sometimes there is an overlap where politics and wrestling can be combined. For instance on a USO tour of Afghanistan:

Not sure if WWE Star "Crisis" is supposed to be Edge or just a generic wrestler, but he certainly looks ready to kick ass.

Certainly not showing a lack of self-esteem, either.

Warning to younger readers: this is obviously a fabrication of the liberal media elite. IT'S STILL REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!

Hey, all of us who were brought up on HulkaMania still eat our prayers and say our vitamins!


Doonesbury is ©Gary Trudeau.

Wrestling And Comic Strips: Bloom County

Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed is one of my favourite comic strips of all time and while I knew that pro wrestling had been mentioned in one of Opus' first appearances in February 1982,

 

I was very surprised to find that there was a whole week's worth of stories focusing on pro wrestling in April 1985. April 1985? What did that time period have to do with wrestling? Oh yes, it was immediately after WrestleMania 1, the granddaddy of them all, when Vince McMahon, Jr. finally took wrestling out of the smoke filled rooms and bingo halls and brought it into our living rooms.

Wrestling was hip: 

 

And, as we all know, wrestling always needs new Superstars, but just who is this masked man?

   

At least he has a firm grasp on his motivations for becoming a wrestler: 

 

So who is this mysterious woman that could drive a man to become embroiled in the dirty world of professional wrestling?

I would bet money that Opus is reading "Professional Wrestling Finishing Holds" by "Judo" Gene LeBelle. Really fun book. And so educational! 

The full sequence of strips can be found in "Bloom County: The Complete Library Volume 5".

Highly recommended!



Bloom County is ©Berkeley Breathed.

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.