[Originally from the March 15th edition of my newsletter.]
I haven’t been talking a lot about comics recently. I hadn’t been reading much stuff due to my mind being elsewhere and focused on other things. However, I made a list at the beginning of the year of comics that I wanted to read and told myself that I would make an effort when things cleared up a bit.
After getting my taxes mostly in order and finding out I didn’t have a doctor’s appointment that I thought I did, I decided to take a bit of time to find some of those books. I opened a Bookshop.org account because I’ve been trying to move away from Amazon for book purchases and found a few of the books from my list. After picking a few that were available, I ordered them and excitedly waited for them to arrive. And they arrived a day early.
The first of which is Do a Powerbomb! by Daniel Warren Johnson, Mike Spicer and Rus Wooton.
I spoke about Daniel Warren Johnson before and referenced the book, but I hadn’t yet read it. I’d heard good things and wanted to but life got in the way. But I’m so glad that I finally got the chance to read it. It was a hell of a read and a hell of a ride.
When Yua Steelrose defends her Tokyo Grand World Title against her long-time rival Cobrasun, her daughter Lona is in the front row. But a single slip on the top rope turns what should be an amazing match into a tragedy. Years later, Lona is struggling to become a wrestler and follow in her late mother’s footsteps. Unfortunately, her father has made sure that no one will train her out of fear of her ending up like her mother. Things turn weird when she is grabbed by a strange man named Willard Necroton and transported to another world. Necroton wants her to fight in his tournament, the Deathlyfe Tage Team Tournament. After learning the winner will receive a chance to bring someone back from the dead, Lona is immediately on board. Frustratingly, it is a tag team tournament and no one will partner up with her.
No one except Cobrasun, the man who killed her mother. Together the two of them work together to reunite a family and find forgiveness while hitting dropkicks, Snap German Suplexes and gravity defying moonsaults.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about the comic other than it revolved around wrestling so I went into it fairly blind which was great because this book is bonkers. The whole story is just a wild ride from start to finish and goes in so many wild directions that were great to see. But it also had its share of emotional gut punches as well. There were a couple moments that hit me harder than a Katsuyori Shibata corner dropkick. I think Johnson did a great job of grounding the characters even in the most ridiculous of moments. You really root for Lona and have a lot of sympathy for Cobrasun as you find out more about him. It’s just really well written and paced in a way that I didn’t want to put it down. It was just really good.
Do I even need to say that the art is great? Daniel Warren Johnson is an amazingly talented artist. He has a style that stands out and immediately makes you pay attentions. The thickness of the lines, the energy, ability to convey chaotic motion is just fantastic and so well suited for a wrestling comic. The way he draws the moves look brutal. Some of the recognizable finishers just look devastating. When he draws a character performing a dive, it legit felt like they were frozen in time because of how energetically the bouts the preceded it were. And Cobrasun’s design is sick as hell. I don’t have enough words for how good it is.
And Mike Spicer wasn’t slouching with the colors either. They fit so well and accentuate the art which shouldn’t be a shock as the two have worked together on multiple projects. Rus Wooton nails the lettering as well. The SFX have a real crunch to them and the logo is on point. It’s just a really well-crafted comic in every sense.
Reading this hit me in the same way I Kill Giants did the first time I read it. They aren’t similar in a way that I can articulate but the emotions it hit were the same. It’s the kind of book that I hope I can make someday. It’s very aspirational and just reaffirms my love of comics as a medium and again shows how comics can be dope as hell.
And also, a special shout out to Kota Ibushi and Tomohiro Ishii’s match in the 2018 G1 Climax. Not only did you have a banger match, you also apparently inspired a banger comic.