WWE Then Now Forever Vol 1 TPB

WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 Comic Book

Written and drawn by various

Published by Boom Studios

I have this odd relationship with WWE,which was WWWF when I first saw them.While they are the first wrestling fed I remember seeing,I have vague memories of seeing George The Animal Steele vs some jobber from around 78,except for two short periods in my 40+ years of watching wrestling,WWE is rarely the fed that I love the most.

But with WWE being the biggest wrestling fed in the English speaking parts of the world,and in a few areas where English is a second or third language,that means they get the most variety of  merch. 

Which means there is been quite a few different attempts at doing WWE comic books. The first I know of were from what became Valiant comics. These came out in the early 90s and not only contain art by the legend Steve Ditko but also contain early work from Dave Lapham,Joe Quesada and a few other names. For years no one wanted these comics and you could get them cheap. Now they are sought after and becoming harder to find. Most of the issues hadd stories like Virgil trailing Ted Dibiase all around his mansion. And attacking Ted,to keep Ted in fighting shape between matches. One of my favorites has Big Boss Man keeping a close eye on the Undertaker. He is thinking Taker is really killing people. IIRC this story was drawn by Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko.

Then in the late 90s Chaos Comics put out a few comics based on various WWE wrestlers. I know Stone Cold,Mankind,Undertaker,The Rock and Chyna got comics. These comics right now are in the place the Valiant produced WWE comics were 20 years ago,in that they are fairly easy to find. Fairly cheap when you do find them. Not that long ago I got a lot of close to 30 of these Chaos era comics and love how most of them had photo cover variants. Sold most of these at indie wrestling shows,where I will film matches and set up a table to sell various old wrestling merch I have found.

Now the most recent WWE comics. Put out by Boom Studios,a company that I only know cause of the various licensed comics they have put out. No clue if they still have the WWE deal,but they put out at least one monthly WWE title. Plus piles of mini series and one shots. While they rarely had writers or artists I had heard of,what I have read from this run has been pretty damn good. Usually having unique art plus stories  that really connect with you if you are a life long wrestling fan. Not so long ago I found for a decent price an ex-library copy of WWE Then,Now,Forever Vol 1 TPB. I got this TPB for way way under cover price. 

The day the TPB got to my house it was a nice day. It felt like spring outside,a pleasant wind and low humidty with a full bright sun shining. Ever since I learned to read I have always enjoyed sitting outside when it is nice and reading. I grabbed the TPB and headed down to the pier. Over the next 45 minutes I sat on the pier with some fairly quiet music playing and read vol 1 of WWE Then,Now,Forever from Boom Studios.

The TPB collects a pile of all fairly short stories,there is a pile of 1 or 2 page stories in here. Each deals with the past of WWE. Sometimes a story will focus on a wrestler that is still wrestling,like say a Kevin Owens. But then you have stories where the main focus is a legend from the past like say Macho Man or Dusty Rhodes.

Table of contents lists like 18 stories,but I saw they count all the one page stories as just one entry. Which means there is more like 32 stories in this trade.

A story about Tugboat is the first one to stand out to me. Done in  a style that reminds me of the old Fleisher Brothers cartoons,for you younger folks think of Cuphead,it is a short cute story about Tugboat and Earthquake.

All the one page stories are good. The best is the comic adaptation of an infamous American Dream Dusty Rhodes promo. Even though I was never much of a fan of Dusty's in ring work,this promo is one I have always enjoyed.

This 10 page story about the Razor Ramon,RIP Sir,vs HBK ladder match is the best of the long stories in the tpb. The writer and artist manage to tell the story of the match and include some things that just add to the fun. Like the cut aways to Bret Hart in the back watching the match.

Growing up where I did,about 15 minutes west of Mobile Alabama of course I am a fan of William Moody aka Percy Pringle aka Paul Bearer. This is the last page of a dark story about the Mankind and Undertaker boiler room match. Look at that scratchy art. With some thick dark lines the artist manages to capture the kind of horrid appearance of Paul during that time period.

Not all the stories in this TPB are based on actual matches. One of the other longer stories stars the New Day. Who build a time machine to travel to time getting rid of things that are BOOTY. If you know of the New Day you know that this story will get wacky and still be fun. For me the best part is the above pictured part. They travel back to caveman days and get to see a stone age Ric Flair vs what I am sure is a hybrid of Brock Lesner and a T-rex.

Growing up I would watch WWE,which was WWF by the time I am talking about,but my favorite was Mid South(later known as UWF). Jake the Snake Roberts was one of the ones I had to see each week in Mid South. Once he went to WWF he was the guy I kept hoping would dethrone Hogan. Yes I was one of the few kids in the 80s Rock N Wrestling era to not like Hogan. I love the art on this Jake story. It is realistic but has a tiny bit of cartoony touch to it.

Now one sad thing about modern comics is the dreaded variant covers have come back. During the mid 90s comic boom then bust,a bust so bad it almost killed the US comic market,you had variant covers. There would be one cover that was on say 90% of the copies of let's say Heroman issue 4. Then on 8% of the covers of thaat comic would be a variant cover,usually drawn by a big name artist.And on that final 2% of the covers would be the ULTRA RARE variant cover. These could be another cover drawn by a big name artists or sometimes they would be the same as the 90% cover but with the color of the background changed. Boom Studios does lots of variant covers. The art of Sting up above is a variant cover to one of the issues that is in this TPB. Thankfully most companies are smart and include the variant covers in the TPB.

As I flipped past the page that had the above cover on it I knew I had seen it before. I looked to the side and yep I was right. That is a variant cover done by Jim Rugg. Jim Rugg is a pretty good indie comic artist/writer. It's become an inside joke between myself and Bat32 of Sleaze Fiend Magazine that Bat will buy any comic if it has  Jim Rugg Variant cover. Plus I couldn't pass up on a cover with George The Animal Steele,Macho Man,Ricky Steamboat.

Now the final 2 pages of the TPB. On the left is a nice sepia tone variant cover. With piles of superstars and legends. On the right is a I'm guessing airbrushed variant cover with The Boss Sasha Banks as the focus.

Combined the affordable price,good stories and unique and beautiful art and I have already started looking to see how many more TPBs there are in the Boom Studios WWE Then,Now,Forever run. If you are a wrestling fan or know someone that is.Plus are a comic fan this is worth tracking down.