I always really like these chain-wrestling sequences when they’re done, but the layouts and pencils are a nightmare (not Danny Davis).
In other news, my friend Dan and I are starting a YouTube show about wrestling, called Super Wrestling Funtime! We recorded the first four episodes last night, and should have an episode about the Cruiserweight Classic posted this week.
Next Week: Replace chain wrestling with FLIPZ. Read it now by supporting HEAT on Patreon!
“It was all going so well, and then he kicked my balls into my lungs.” Actually, that’s a better punchline than what I wrote in the comic. Pretend I wrote that instead.
I’m watching a lot of ’90s All Japan recently, as followers of the blog and my Twitter are likely aware, and I’ve reached the interesting post-NOAH split period. It’s a pretty big step down in match quality for a few years, with an aging and kind of boring at that point Keiji Mutoh taking over the company and carrying the Triple Crown. 2003 starts to pick up again, as Kawada recovers from injuries and gets the long run with the Triple Crown that was probably intended for him several years earlier. Kawada had a fantastic match with Shinjiro Otani to capture the belt, then a less fantastic but still pretty good bout with Tenryu. He also beat Mike Awesome in 3 minutes in the tournament semi-final prior to wrestling Otani, which was just pretty funny. I think he legitimately knocked Awesome out with a soccer kick to the head.
Next Week: Bust a gut.
I should probably explain the title of this one. For that, I shall turn to YouTube and our favourite melting wrestler, Yoshihiro Takayama.
Everest German suplex. Fuck yeah. That was a ton of fun to draw. I frequently air doodle German suplexes when I’m warming up to draw, so it was fun to actually get to draw one with pencil on paper. I think this did a much better job of conveying the motion of the German suplex than the last few times it’s been busted out. This is, as of the time of this news post, my favourite HEAT page thus far. Most pages don’t stay my favourite for long, because I draw a crapload of these things, so I’m sure I’ll have a new favourite page before the end of the year.
Next Week: Special Man Pain gets into Star Wars territory.
Why do people keep letting me come up with strip titles? WHY? Naturally, they get even worse after the 24 Hour Comic Challenge which I did this weekend. More on that when I’m not exhausted.
The reference I used for the second panel was from Bret Hart and Owen Hart’s WrestleMania X classic, which is one of my top 5 matches of all time. So instead of me continuing to use my thinking brain, watch that:
Next Week: Dick the Bastard channels his inner Yoshihiro Takayama. Or Akira Tozawa. Or some other Japanese wrestler who drops people on their heads. So… all of them.
I just spent a solid two minutes trying to come up with a name for this strip. It was not two minutes well spent. You know what’s a better way to spend time now that you’ve read the strip? Check out the Vader vs. Misawa match I posted on the HEAT blog. It’s about 20 minutes and awesome. Vader does an actual, proper, moonsault. It’s terrifying.
As people who follow my Twitter are already aware, I’ve been watching a lot of All Japan Pro Wrestling lately, and as a result I’ve seen a shitload of back suplexes, which are for some reason called back drops. While this particular back suplex drops Smashmouth Smith mostly on his neck and shoulders, it’s not nearly as brutal looking as the shit Misawa was taking on a nightly basis. The King’s Road was lined with skulls of CTE sufferers, apparently. Oof. Still, the matches. Oh man. They’re good.
Next: Bret Hart was used for photo reference, and also I need to do another bulk scanning day. Not a fan of those days.
It turns out that I have a lot of fun drawing headlocks. They’re something I find myself doodling quite a bit, along with German suplexes and lariats. You may or may not see both of those moves before the end of this match, he said, unsubtly hinting at the next few pages.
In other news, Edmonton Expo is coming up on September 28th and 29th! I’ll be at the Renegade Arts Entertainment booth promoting Jeff Martin’s The War of 1812, so stop by, say hi, and check out all of the cool stuff at the booth!
Next Week: Cockiness is a bitch. So are hammerlocks.
Instead of updating during RAW I… forgot to update because I was watching RAW. Crap. Three hour RAWs are surprisingly watchable thus far, however, so I’m optimistic about that going forward. I kind of assume that all of you reading this watch RAW, because… well, you’re reading a wrestling webcomic, so why wouldn’t you be somebody who watches RAW? That just makes good sense.
Blorg’s line in the third panel might be one of my favourites he’s had, although I should preface that with the fact that by the time I post these comics, I usually can’t remember what they’re about until I see the preview graphic, so remembering lines that I wrote months ago isn’t really a thing I do regularly. Speaking of video games, though, I just picked up a half price copy of WWE ’12. My Dick the Bastard create-a-wrestler is almost complete, barring some minor tweaking, but apparently you have to pay to use the online mode if you bought the game used. What the fuck, THQ? I’m already paying for Xbox Live, and you want more money to play one game on it? Eat a Dick… the Bastard. That was awful. Anyway, if you can upload creations without paying for their Online Axxess BS then I’ll put him online so you guys can download him if you want to. Next up, Mad Doc Crockett, who should be a little easier since his finisher is actually a thing that exists in the game, whereas Ragnar’s Revenge isn’t even possible in the create a finisher mode.
I can’t remember when, but at some point I decided that the exploder would be one of Dick’s signature moves, as at the point of the decision I had drawn a few matches already and was starting to build his arsenal of moves. I may have chosen differently had I realized that finding photo reference for the exploder is a pain in the balls.
This news post is long. I shall stop now.
Next week: Uno needs to make a tag. So does Dick the Bastard, but he can’t. So Uno is the only one whose need to tag is particularly relevant. Cool? Cool.
The title for this strip comes from Mick Foley’s first book, Have a Nice Day, in which he tells a story about WCW becoming so PC in the early ’90s that they referred to foreign objects as international objects. I have no idea if that story is actually true, having not watched WCW at the time and being far too lazy to go look it up right now, but I think it’s ridiculous enough to be plausible. I think “Dead!” might be my favourite onomatopoeia of the last few months, and probably my second favourite of the series behind “Ptooth!”
Because I forgot to post it along with HEAT 158, here’s Dick and Ron’s entrance music (which is also Ron’s music as a singles wrestler):
On Saturday: Either Ron gets the three count, or gets kicked in the face. Maybe both.
This Classic Wrestling Moment was initially going to be about Mad Doc Crockett’s Galactic Wrestling debut, but after drawing that one I shuffled it to CWM #7 and drew this one to replace it, since it does a better job of setting up the next chapter.
Dusty Trails is a pretty blatant Dusty Rhodes parody, whose origin lies in a literal interpretation of the name of Dusty Rhodes’ trademark “bionic elbow”. What better way to sci-fi it up than to make it an actual bionic elbow? It also makes the move seem a lot more dangerous.
I considered using this one as a trivia contest, but it’s REALLY obvious.
On Saturday: Chapter 6 begins with a look at Dick’s prison cell.
This page is full of hard things to draw, but it turned out pretty well and was a ton of fun. The bulldog was easily the most enjoyable panel to draw (and also the one that I think turned out the best), although the headlock and the elbow drop turned out nicely as well. Speaking of things that turned out nicely, I spent the last two days working on a new piece that’s going to be part of an illustration portfolio that I’m putting together because I need to makes me some money.
I just started drawing Classic Wrestling Moments #6, which features a young Mad Doc Crockett (well, technically it’s Doc. He has a different name and gimmick in this one). It also let me work on some of Galactic Wrestling’s stage designs, which has been fun so far, and a interesting challenge since it gives me the opportunity to go far beyond the fairly simple Prison Pro Wrestling set-up.
Contest! Enter it. At this point, 2 out of 4 correct would take the lead. I also realized that one of them has two acceptable correct answers, which makes it a little easier.
On Wednesday: The momentum swings yet again… or does it? Check back on Wednesday, because I can’t remember what happens on page 57!
