Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Wrestletopia’

Review Fix chats with “Wrestletopia” Co-creator/cowriter Ed Kuehnel, who lets us know what inspired the series and where it’s going now that it has outgrown it’s self-published roots.

Review Fix: What inspired this comic?

Ed Kuehnel: Wrestling was big part of our lives growing up. My love affair with wrestling began in the late 70’s in Portland, where I watched Pacific Northwest Wrestling, the NWA territory in my corner of the world.

Matt and I have worked in the video game industry since the early 2000’s – that’s our day job. We decided we really liked working together, so after we were both laid off from the same studio in 2006, we decided to work on creator-owned projects together. Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia came out of that.

Review Fix: There aren’t many comic books on wrestling out there. How did you even get started?

Kuehnel: We started with the basic idea that we loved this story and these characters, and we really wanted to get it out into the world in a format people could see and smell and taste, and that even if no one liked it, at least it would exist as something other than a screenplay no one would read.

We had never worked on a comic book before so I sought the advice of Ben Dewey, a talented artist who does a lot of work for Dark Horse and other big publishers. We didn’t even know what a flatter was until he broke everything down for us.

Living in Portland helps. There’s a lot of talent here. It also helps that we have day jobs and our spouses work.

Review Fix: How is it different from your previous work?

Kuehnel: It’s the first thing I’ve ever worked on that I own. And of course, video games are quite different: you have player input, branching conversations, etc. It was really refreshing to do something linear, to be in control creatively, and to have no one to answer to but ourselves.

Review Fix: How does it feel to go from self-published to Indie?

Kuehnel: Aligning ourselves with Starburns has been really fun. It gives us an air of legitimacy and helps us get coverage with comic book websites and other media outlets that we can’t reach on our own. Plus, I really enjoy being part of a “small press family” – Starburns Industries Press is working with some really cool creators to release comics that are “funny, strange, sad, and beautiful”, as is their motto.

Review Fix: How did you research to make this comic a reality? Are you guys big time fans of wrasslin’?

Kuehnel: Wrestling is the one subject that I probably have too much knowledge about floating around in my head. When I was a kid, I’d go to used bookstores around Portland and buy back issues of old wrestling magazines so I could figure out what was going on in wrestling before my time. Later, when wrestling pulled back the curtain by doing away with “kayfabe” – the artifice that wrestling was neither scripted or choreographed – I read with gusto every wrestler’s ghost-written autobiography or “behind the scenes” book about wrestling I could find – Jim Wilson and Weldon T. Johnson’s Chokehold is some seminal work in this area and was very helpful to us.

Still, while writing Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia we did a lot of research. We watched a lot of documentaries on wrestlers and wrestling, bought old wrestling magazines off of ebay, etc.

Review Fix: What makes this comic special?

Kuehnel: It’s funny. It’s got a unique concept: when a disgruntled pro wrestler declares himself “galactic champion of the universe” a planet of alien wrestlers sees it as an act of war.

We’ve got a well-thought out story that will take us six issues to cover. We promise not to ramble aimlessly until we run out of money or are told to “get lost” by our publisher.

It’s an action/comedy, but there is an emotional piece to it as well. In addition to defending earth from wrestling aliens, Rory has to wrestle his demons in order to save the planet. One thing we’ve heard again and again from reviewers is, “You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to love this comic”.

Review Fix: What creators do you think have influenced you the most?

Kuehnel: I did enjoy Marvel, DC and Image comics as a kid, but I would say the biggest lasting influences were the creators behind things like The Tick, Groo, Milk and Cheese – even Archie. I tended to gravitate toward anything lighthearted.

 Review Fix: Favorite wrestler of all time? Why?

Kuehnel: Tough to pick just one, but when Ric Flair looked straight into the camera and said stuff like, “I live, and breathe, and DIE every day of my life for this business!” (my ringtone, actually) you one-hundred percent believed it. As Jim Cornette said, “You FELT Ric Flair.”

Dusty Rhodes is a close second. I was an overweight kid and it was cool to see someone like that act so baller and even win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship a few times.

I have to mention some of the wrestlers active in the Pacific Northwest during my youth: Billy Jack Haynes was as big here as Hulk Hogan was everywhere. Also, “Playboy” Buddy Rose, Rip “The Crippler” Oliver, Bobby “Hangman” Jaggers, “Mean” Mike Miller, Mr. Ebony – they were all so great.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Kuehnel: We had someone who worked for another publisher refer to Wrestletopia as “Everything I love about comics”. When looking back on our work later, I’d like to know that it made people laugh, took their minds off their worries for a bit, and was a genuinely good comic – also that the IP would go on to launch a one-hundred-million-dollar company. That would also be nice.

Review Fix: WCW or WWE?

Kuehnel: I missed the entire WCW experience! I had fallen out of watching wrestling by then and didn’t tune in for a single broadcast. All I know is what I read about in books later and see on YouTube. Still, the WCW gave us The Shockmaster, so that weighs heavily in their favor.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Kuehnel: Matt and I will write six issues of Invasion from Planet Wrestletopia. Each will have bonus material exclusive to those issues and I’m hoping that we can get them in stores (right now the series is on Comixology). Starburns will collect the first six in a trade paperback which will feature its own exclusive bonus material – this will be in stores. 

Matt and I have an idea for a one-shot that ties into this first story arc tangentially and we would like to start a second Wrestletopia series with a new story arc after that. We’d also like to launch a different series that we’ve been noodling on – something in the comedy/horror vein.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kuehnel: Dan Schkade did the art for issues 1-3. Kendall Goode is taking over from there. Marissa Louise is our colorist and Dave Lanphear of A Larger World Studios was the letterer for issues 1-3. Find these folks on Twitter! They are immensely talented and doing all sorts of cool things. Just don’t steal them from us.

Also, please check out Staburns Industries Press’ other titles: Gryffen, Oddwell, Hellicious, Long Ago and Far Away, Nasquatch, and more! You can find them all on Comixology by searching “Starburns”. They’re great! Trust me!