Maybe it’s the shared love of Spandex, but Cons tend to bring out a multitude of wrestlers. At the the New York Comic Con this weekend in addition to all the wrestlers making appearances – The Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Booker T, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Tito Santana, Rosita, The Beautiful People, Vader, the list goes on – there are also wrestling themed comics available for purchase. If you’re attending, we encourage you to check out all of them but highly recommend two of them: Super Pro K.O. and Headlocked.

Super Pro K.O, created by Jarrett (same spelling as Jeff Jarrett; no relation to the country singer) Williams centers around the tale of Joe Somiano, a childhood wrestling fan who never let go of the dream of becoming a professional wrestler. As he enters the Super Pro K.O. league as a rookie, he faces new challenges, eager to climb to the top of the ranks and dethrone the champion, King Crown Jr. Jarrett Williams infuses Super Pro K.O. with a manga-esque style (think Scott Pilgrim but with wrestling). The world of Super Pro K.O. is like that of the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Era of the late 80’s mixed with some of the backstage politics made public found in the 90’s. The Comics are so fun that Rapper Adam Warrock even wrote a song about it for an Oni Press Mixtape.

Williams will be at the Oni Press Booth (#1221) on Friday and Saturday with copies of Super Pro K.O. If you need more of a primer, check out the website. Also the books are available on Amazon or hopefully at your local comic book store.

A contrast to Super Pro K.O. but equally awesome is Mike Kingston’s (again, same spelling as Kofi Kingston; also, no relation to the Jamaican Superstar) Headlocked. His main character, Mike Hartmann, discovers the art of professional wrestling later in life as opposed to Joe Somiano. Still, the Wrestling bug enters him and Hartmann pursues a life as a professional wrestler. Kingston took a different approach from Williams; if Super Pro K.O. is an homage to the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling of the WWF and WCW, Headlocked channels the ROH and independent wrestling scene. As a result, there’s a certain grittiness and realism to the tale, some of which is seen in the trailer below.

Headlocked also has contributions by several Wrestlers: Davari served as a consultant and has been incorporated into the story as a character; Christopher Daniels wrote a Forward; and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler drew the cover for the first trade volume. Mike Kingston will be in Artists Alley (O5) with copies of Headlocked and other Headlocked merchandise. If you can’t be at NYCC, then seek this book out via the Headlocked website.

We hope to explode these both series of comics in greater detail in later posts but wanted to encourage any wrestling fans to pick these books up. If you know of any other wrestling themed comics (yes, even WWE Heroes), please let us know and we will check those out as well.