Headlocked Comic Creator Michael Kingston Interview: Wrestling Comics, Creative Wrestlers & More
Does Volume 2 of Tales From the Road differ drastically from Volume 1 in any way?
Kingston: These are just collected editions. Some of the stories have come out in years past. Some are bonus stories from old Kickstarter books. We put out some of the books through Wrestle Crate and that's where we started. The Jeff Cobb story that's in this, we had done it back then. The Cardona and Myers and Thunder Rosa story and the Cryme Tyme stories were stuff we did with Wrestle Crate. So, I've been doing this stuff for a while, you want to find the right tone. You want a mixture of tones. You don't want all the stories to be serious or funny. You want a mixture of companies represented and a mixture of voices whether it be gender, race, age, or experience level. You find a nice blend of stories and voice and I think we've got so much stuff to pull from that we do a pretty good job of that.
Are you already looking ahead to Volume 3?
Kingston: By the end of June, I'll have enough content for four volumes. We've got a lot of stuff that hasn't been collected, stuff that's been out, stuff that's been in the works. My biggest enemy is always the clock, especially with the landscape being what it is. People are under contract and you may have a 90-day window to get in contact with somebody and then they're under contract somewhere else. Some of that are stories in of itself.
The last year has been a nightmare on some level because every time they let people go, selfishly I'm thinking, “I can collaborate with these people.” But there's 20 of them and then there's another 20 and another 20. Some are right over to the next company and they're off the board again. As a creator, I want to work with everyone. As long as there's a ring somewhere and a promise of a payday, you can guarantee that there's been something that has happened to people. There's never a shortage of interesting things that happen in the wrestling business.
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