‘Headlocked’ Creator Talks Comics, Young Bucks, Samoa Joe, MVP Helping, How Fans Can Help Out, More

I spoke to Mike Kingston, creator of the comic Headlocked yesterday about the Kickstarter for the remastered first edition of the book. Kingston talked to me about working with Tony Atlas, Samoa Joe, The Young bucks and much more, as well as the obstacles he faced while trying to create a wrestling themed comic. You can contribute to the Kickstarter at this link.

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For those unfamiliar, tell them about Headlocked.

“I was a wrestling fan and a comic book fan from the time I was 8 years old. Whenever a wrestling comic would come out, I’d go get it and they’d always not be very good. There was always Undertaker fighting demons, the Ultimate Warrior stripping Santa Claus naked, Kevin Nash as Mad Max. It wasn’t about wrestling. I became aware that they weren’t going to make the wrestling comic that I wanted, so I decided to make my own. I made a book called Headlocked, which is about a theater major in college who falls in love with wrestling and decides to become a wrestler. He quits school, and its his journey from day zero where he navigates the underbelly of the business.”

What has the reception been like within the industry for Headlocked?

“Unbelievable, really. I’d like to say Headlocked is sort of my love letter to the industry, but some of the negative aspects are what drives the story, so you’re sort of walking a line. We seem to have hit on it just right. Right from the very beginning, Hurricane Helms and Rob Van Dam bought copies at San Diego Comic Con. Christopher Daniels had bought a copy from me. Everyone has been universally positive about it. I haven’t met anyone who has given me a hard time. Even old school guys – Tom Prichard liked it, Jim Cornette was really jazzed about it. I’m pretty happy with the reception.”

I know in previous installments you had stories from wrestlers. Will that continue?

“How I get the books funded is through Kickstarter. One of the things that has been that the comic book industry is a difficult one to navigate. It’s very superhero heavy, it’s run by a couple of large publishers, so if you don’t go through those publishers, you really can’t get a book made. So what we do is fund our books through Kickstarter, and then the people who back the books on Kickstarter get stories from famous wrestlers. We’ve had Hurricane and Rob Van Dam, Booker T, a bunch of different guys have contributed art or stories. For the books that we have now, we have Samoa Joe, MVP, The Young Bucks, Tom Laruffa, Scott Lost, Papadon, Danny Havoc.”

You’re had a ton of input from wrestlers, so it’s not like you jumped in to this without doing your homework. You seem immersed in it.

“One of the cool things to me is I can go into locker rooms and it’s not like ‘What’s this guy doing in here?’ They kind of accept me. That’s kind of neat. For where we are in the story, we don’t need a lot of input, but it’s good to know it’s there if I need it. We’re there at the beginning where he’s bumping and running the ropes and hasn’t had his first match yet. I’m dealing with mental and emotional things of him following his dream and going through hardships. I spent some time in the …

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