Ringside #1

Ringside, Issue #1 combines two of my favorite forms of entertainment, pro wrestling and comics.  Danny Knossos is an aged wrestler who worked under a mask as Minotaur.  The only problem is that he's known as the Minotaur, but his former employer owns the rights to the Minotaur costume and brand.  Teddy, his former lover, works for CMW, the big wrestling corporation that owns Knossos's brand, and Teddy's in trouble.  Thing is, Danny Knossos is a former Marine, and after he gets jumped by the guys that Teddy is in trouble with, he gets ready to go full Rambo on their asses.

I almost bought this title a month ago but didn't have the money in my pocket to spend an extra $3 or $4.  I sneezed, and four issues were out, but I decided to start this series, anyway.  Just about every pro wrestling comic has a fake superhero turning into a real-life superhero.  And there was a time when a lot of wrestlers were formerly in the Armed Forces.  The manager, Percival Pringle III, known in WWE as Paul Bearer, served during Vietnam, Brian Armstrong/the Road Dogg served during the 1991 Gulf War, and most famously, Dutch Mantell/Zeb Coulter fought in Vietnam because he was drafted.  The examples from the 1970s through 1990s alone are endless, and fact mixes with fiction, as always.  A turn-of-the-century wrestler whose name escapes me claimed to be a Civil War veteran, although it later came out that he was born in 1872, almost a decade after the Civil War ended.

One thing that makes this series different is guns.  Danny Knossos, it seems from the first issue, is going to kill a bunch of people.  Another is homosexuality.  It's no secret that the occasional guy who likes to wear feathered boas and roll around with guys on the ground might be gay.  When I was in college, I had a roommate who told me which wrestlers were gay and which had A.I.D.S. (according to him, almost all of them).  He also told me that George Takei is gay, but I guess a broken clock and all that...

The facial artwork is somewhat minimalist, with heavy lines on the characters' faces.  Nick Barber manages to make his characters look mad, upset, or curious with just a few inkstrokes.  Simon Gough is the colorist, and he excels at creating color schemes for each page.  The overall artistic effect is to have a cartoonish/iconic look to the title while making the subject matter hyper-realistic.  It creates contrast and drama.  I really liked the lettering by Ariana Maher, with straight vertical lines and slanted horizontal lines.  It is reminiscent of a number of other letterers I've mentioned with similar styles but with a unique realization, almost like an Arial font.  I'll have to catch up with this title!