Been waiting to show this one off for a little while now and you here on steemit are getting it first ...an EXCLUSIVE!
A little background first. Headlocked is a comic book about wrestling, making it in wrestling, working your way up, tales of trials and tribulations.
or as they put it
"A gritty drama chronicling a boy's journey through the seedy underbelly of the wrestling business. With art & stories by the biggest names in wrestling!"
It is the brainchild of Michael Kingston.
If you've seen enough of my rants and blogs you'll know there ain't a lot of comic book "pros" out there who are worth their weight. Michael, however, is a guy who works his ass off, doesn't compromise, and has been publishing independently pretty much the entire time. None of that is easy to do, much less easy to do consistently and without trailing off. There are times when I think I'm all used up...and then I think of Michael somewhere on the other side of the country still hard at it. I wouldn't say it's inspiring in the classical sense of the word...more of a "f*ck...well, if he's not gonna pussy out then neither am I"
His website is here with more info AND convention dates....
http://www.headlockedcomic.com
this guy is at every convention you can think of. and he seldom shows up alone. Not only have wrestling greats done art and stories in Headlocked, he usually has a few at his booth during comic-cons. JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER. MICK FOLEY, RIC FLAIR, BOOKER T, KEN ANDERSON, AND ...hell there are to many for me to remember, have contributed work and been at his booth.
So...he messages me a little while ago, asking if I'd contribute a pin-up to a project he's working on for AIW an up and coming wrestling organization.
http://www.aiwrestling.com/index.html
Out of curiosity, I looked into them a bit more that just their website...they have some money behind them and solid talent, looks like they are going to give it a good go!
BUT...back to my part in all this. He needed some pin ups done to highlight a few matches they'll be having. He decided to give me the match between Scott Steiner
and
Hornswoggle
Those are both pretty distinct guys, so that leaves the biggest concern being coming up with an interesting image/composition.
Michael does a lot of call backs and homages to classic comic books, putting a wrestler in the place of a Spider-man or Captain America, so I starter with that...thinking that this classic cover featuring Wolverine VS the Hulk would be good.
I don't hate it, but it has some problems. One being that it's not the most well know cover and another being that folding chairs aren't shiny and reflective. I wasn't confident it would be clear just what the hell was going on.
Often with covers you just have to keep cranking ideas out until a good one appears...
meh
...hmm...nah
maybe
...I sort like that one
I really like that one
and that one is solid.
Personally, I liked G and D. Michael mentioned that Hornswoggle was going into the match with a no fear/cocky attitude, so G isn't really suited. So...D is the winner.
Don't have any progress shots of this because...I forgot. BUT...you're hearing all this first so that should take the sting off of that.
I do have the final inks
and final color!
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