Headlocked - Michael Kingston

Intro

Nine years ago, I just wanted to make a cool wrestling comic. Something that was entertaining but that also showcased wrestling as an art form. As a lifelong fan of both wrestling and comics, I felt that despite the obvious parallels and crossover fanbase…no one had really done wrestling comics the right way.

I created Headlocked, an HBO-style drama chronicling an aspiring wrestler’s coming of age in the wrestling business. And I pitched it to everyone in comics… and I was turned down by everyone…one dude from a major publisher straight up laughed in my face.

So we just made them ourselves.

2007:
I started by selling them out of a backpack at wrestling shows while working two jobs to pay for printing and convention costs.

2010:
With the addition of WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry “The King” Lawler as the cover artist and Samoan wrestler/artist, Michel Mulipola on interiors, the art in the book was now all largely done by actual professional wrestlers.

2017:
We’ve raised 100K on Kickstarter, we’ve had over 30 wrestlers contribute stories or art including: Ric Flair, Mick Foley, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Hurricane, Cody Rhodes, MVP, Gangrel, SCU, Ken Anderson, Trent Seven, Mustafa Ali and more!

We built this brand from the ground up by hustling for the last nine years, thriving in mediums dominated by giants like Marvel, DC, and WWE. While we’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years, we’ve still barely scratched the surface of what this property can be.

In 2019, we’ve kept growing and evolving with new partnerships…some that can’t even be announced yet. We launched Headlocked Clothing in conjunction with Pro Wrestling Tees featuring incredible wrestling/comic book mashup art and are teaming up with Jeanie Buss and WOW: Superheroes for a special San Diego Comic Con event.

And with the success of GLOW on Netflix and the popularity of wrestling in the mainstream at an all-time high, Headlocked has begun drawing significant interest from Hollywood. Where will this take us? We don’t know but we’re excited to find out!

2020:
The worldwide pandemic temporarily halted our comic con roadshow but we kept it moving. We launched a second title, “Tales From The Road” in conjunction with Pro Wrestling Crate featuring collaborations with Christian, Franky Monet (Taya), Cryme Time, Sgt. Slaughter, and Matt Cardona/Brian Myers. We also launched our fifth successful Kickstarter for a collected edition of thirteen Tales From The Road collabs including original content from Dolph Ziggler, Joey Janela, Danhausen, and Lee Moriarty!

2021:
We kept it moving despite another tough year, dropping collaborations with Thunder Rosa, Brody King, and Lita. As things slowly return to normal, we’re gearing up to resume our convention schedule with up to eleven shows starting in August. We have multiple titles and collaborations in the works and have targeted our next Kickstarter for summer of 2021.

Stay tuned!

Headlocked writer/creator

Mike Kingston

Creators

Mike Kingston

Mike is the writer/creator of Headlocked. Ever since George The Animal Steele captured his imagination as an eight-year old boy, he's been in love with wrestling...in all its forms...from big arenas to high school gyms. And he's had an equally passionate love affair with comics. Frustrated by the lack of good wrestling comics, he decided to write one himself. The result is Headlocked. He’s also done work for WWE’s comic from BOOM Studios and several other licensed projects.

JERRY "THE KING" LAWLER

Jerry is the cover artist for Headlocked. Many people know him as a wrestling legend, the voice of the WWE, and the man who slapped Andy Kaufmann on David Letterman. But not many people realize that The King's first love was actually art, and it was always his dream to be a comic book cover artist. His first published comic book cover ever was for Headlocked: The Tryout #1 and he also painted the cover to our both of collected editions.

MICHEL MULIPOLA

Michel is the artist for Headlocked: The Last Territory. He is a Samoan comic book artist/professional wrestler/comic book store clerk based in Auckland, New Zealand. He's been wrestling for New Zealand's premiere promotion, Impact Pro Wrestling, for almost 8 years. As well as doing artwork for Headlocked, he has credits for WWE’s comic from BOOM Studios, Samoan Heroes, and various other projects. He can usually be found drawing comics at the comic book store he runs, Arkham City Comics, in Auckland.

DOUG HILLS

Doug has been a freelance commercial artist for over 20 years. In addition to his work on Headlocked, Doug has had the opportunity to create art for comic books; commercial, TV, and movie storyboards; T-shirts & posters; character and scene concepts; and video games. He was the author of Manga Studio For Dummies (released in 2008), which helped digital artists become familiar with the art program Manga Studio (now known as CLIP Studio Paint).

JENNY GORMAN

Jenny is a self-taught freelance artist based outside of Philadelphia. Blending together her degree in Art History with her passion for comics, she launched her illustration career in 2013. Along the way she has become a Jack-of-All-Trades, and wears many artistic hats: penciller, inker, colorist and letterer. Jenny has worked on a variety of projects, from books about science-fiction, to old-timey westerns and fantasy adventures, to comics about wrestling and even restaurants! However, Jenny is happiest when collaborating as a colorist, allowing her to get into her Zen mode and bring art to life.

CHUCK OBACH

Chuck is the colorist for Headlocked: The Last Territory. He is, in his own words, a self taught Comic Book Colorist and an advocate of the Jedi Force "look ma' no hands" coloring technique.

JACOB BASCLE

Jacob is the letterer on Headlocked: The Last Territory. Raised in the swamps of Louisiana and trained in the finer points of graphic design in Minnesota’s frozen tundra, Jacob now calls the beaches of Southern California home. He likes putting letters on top of other people’s artwork and on front of their comics. When not handling lettering, logo design and production for Visionary Comics, he’s either working on other comics or doing freelance graphic design through his company Freemind Graphx, or gaming and hanging out with his girlfriend Katie, son Xander and their cats Mischief and Mayhem.

JILL THOMPSON

Jill paints the credit/chapter pages for Headlocked: The Last Territory. Aside from being a mulitple-Eisner award winning artist, known for her work on Sandman, Beasts of Burden, Scary Godmother, and Wonder Woman among others....Jill's also a huge wrestling fan. She painted two holiday books written by Mick Foley, designed gear for Daniel Bryan, and created a very famous CM Punk T-shirt for WWE!