Headlocked Comics' Creator Discusses His Relationship With WWE, Predicts AEW - DC Comics Projects
Headlocked is a pro wrestling comic book series that was created by Michael Kingston. Many notable pro wrestlers have written for the series including Rob Van Dam, Samoa Joe and others while some wrestlers like Jerry "The King" Lawler have done artwork.
Since it isn't affiliated with WWE, Kingston was asked how WWE feels about their talent working with him when he joined The Wrestling Inc Daily podcast.
"Dijakovic we did, literally, the week before he signed. I try to be conscious of that stuff because in 2020 so many people are under contract right now and it can be a lot trickier. Dolph's got a little bit of leeway in his contract because of his tenure. He gets to do his comedy shows. Some of the guys I've done stuff with had announcing deals and what not," said Kingston.
"Ali?you know there's a weird nebulous time when some of the guys on 205 Live still have Pro Wrestling Tees accounts and are still allowed to do some outside stuff. For the most part, WWE doesn't really give me a hard time. I've never really had a problem with them at all; they're good people. I think everybody knows I'm not trying to get rich off Headlocked. I have a regular job and I pay my bills with that and every dollar I make with Headlocked either goes to artists or to do more conventions or make more books. I just wanna make comics and make them as long as I can so we just put it back into the machine."
Kingston was then asked if he's had any discussions about working with either WWE or AEW on a comic.
"I wrote some stories for the WWE comic BOOM! I co-wrote a story with AJ Styles that dealt with the time he left the locker room to the time he debuted at the Royal Rumble. I co-wrote a story with Samoa Joe about why he and Nakamura didn't get drafted in the first brand split. I wrote a story chronicling Bret Hart's career told from Jimmy Hart's perspective in his first time in the locker room and Jimmy Hart's plan for Bret as a talent," revealed Kingston.
He added that BOOM! is not currently making WWE comics even though they have the license, which Kingston admits is weird and doesn't know what their plans are.
"I think they're working on some more graphic novel-type stuff," stated Kingston. "Obviously, the industry is a little weird right now with the pandemic and places being open and not open and what not. And AEW deals with Time Warner so they're a Warner company which is owned by DC. I would assume at some point DC would probably do something."
With the pandemic affecting many forms of media and entertainment, comic books would seem to not be as affected by what's going on. Kingston discussed the current state of his business.
"We are planning and we are talking with some animation places about possibly expanding some stuff. That's definitely something that people have been after us for. Comics is a real business ? I sort of exist in comics but I sort of exist out of comics. I make everything myself and I generally don't sell my stuff to comic stores. I fund it through Kickstarter and take it on the road," said Kingston.
"Comics as a business and art form is very similar to wrestling in that a lot of people when they think about wrestling, they think WWE. There's a lot of people that think they're wrestling fans when they're really WWE fans. In the same way there's a lot of people who are comic book fans but they're really superhero fans. To me, doing a straight drama with no genre elements and non-WWE, non-promotion affiliated stuff can be a tricky battle to get any kind of bandwidth and get people in front of you.
"I did a Comic-Con and the promoter was offered Roddy Piper as a guest and he didn't know who Piper was outside of the guy from They Live. It's weird sometimes how in a bubble people can be. So, I'm sort of grateful for how I exist."
Michael Kingston's latest project "Headlocked: Tales From The Road" is currently running it's Kickstarter. You can donate and view it by clicking HERE. Michael's full interview aired as part of today's episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.