2015 Reading Challenge Book 077 The Hardcore Truth

TITLE-The Hardcore Truth The Bob Holly Story
AUTHOR-Bob Holly and Ross Williams
FORMAT-Oversized Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
PRICE-Free,was a gift

Yeah I can hear some of yall laughing. "Bob Holly wrote a book LOLOLOL!" I am a huge fan of Hardcore Holly,so as soon as I heard he had a book coming out I knew I had to read it. A few years back one of my Aunt's ordered it for me as my X-mas gift.

Like most wrestling biographies the book starts off with Bob's childhood and works it way forwards. And while reading about Bob's youth was fun,what I was really wanting to hear was about his life once he got into pro wrestling. I happened to be at what had to be one of Bob's first few matches. And thanks to him at the time working as a welder on the Gulf Coast,I got to meet him. He was working with the same company my father worked with. That summer at a company picnic I got to meet the person my father referred to as "Dat bastard Robert". I am sure Bob got tired of answering all my questions that day. But he was nice and talked to me for hours that day.

I figured going into book,since Bob was in the WWE for 15+ years and him not wanting to go back all the best stories would come from that time period. Trust me there is some great stories from then. But my favorite actually comes from before he started wrestling. Bob was raising his young child and wanted a way to make some extra money. So he started entering "tough man" contests held in various bars along the Alabama coastal area. He kept winning.Which made a few people mad. So one night he shows up and finds out they had brought in a bear for him to fight. Yep Hardcore Holly fought a bear in some redneck bar outside Mobile Alabama.

Now onto the WWF/WWE years. I love how much details Bob gives about "Wrestler's Court". I had heard a few stories about wrestlers court before. But never in the amount of detail that Bob goes into. Wrestler's Court for those that haven't heard of it,is the wrestlers in WWE's way of self policing the roster. The Undertaker is the judge,JBL is one of the lawyers and the other lawyer changes each time. This is how the wrestlers resolve differences. With the loser usually having to buy the winner beer.

Bob also goes into great detail on why he left the WWE. Seems Ken Anderson ,currently in TNA,had told Bob to go into his bag and get a pain pill. Then Anderson turns around and ratted Bob out to the office. After this Bob was sure once his contract was over WWE wasn't going to renew it. So once it was ended he left and as of this writing hasn't attempted to go back.

One thing that stands out about this book compared to other wrestler bios is that since Bob is pretty much retired he doesn't bite his tongue. Which means he dishes lots of dirt on various WWE wrestlers.

Like with my review of The Gunslinger it is hard for me to be objective about this book. Hardcore Holly is one of my favorite wrestlers of all time. Minor only complaint about this book is I wish it was longer.

The Hardcore Truth gets a 4.93 outta 5.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 076 Rabid Eye the Dream Art of Rick Veitch

TITLE-Rabid Eye the Dream Art of Rick Veitch
AUTHOR-Rick Veitch
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
PRICE-Free was a gift

I first discovered Rick Veitch when he was handling the pencils on Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. After that I lost track of him until Brat Pack came out. I loved it so any time I saw his name in the Capitol City catalog I would get my comic shop to order it for me.

This is collecting the first few issues of Roaring Rick's Rarebit Fiends. Which was Veitch's dream comic. He would take his dreams and make them into the comic. With each dream lasting for a page or two tops. Now this makes for an interesting read. In that as with dreams lots of stuff doesn't make sense. But to me that is a major part of the appeal. There is also lots of cameos from various other comic creators that Veitch is friends with.

The art is great. I consider Veitch one of the most under-rated artist in modern comics. And I love that it is black and white,just like it was in the comics. And Veitch does everything,pencils,inks and lettering.

My only complaint is in the original issues Veitch would include dream comics from other people. And the letters page was always a fun read. Neither of these are included in this collection.

I had pretty much forgotten about this series then in 2013 at Coast Con I found an issue in a comic dealers long boxes. And then last year my Aunt Midget asked me to make a wishlist on Amazon of stuff I would like. I saw they had this trade extremely cheap,something like $2 and shipping. So last X-mas I got it. And while it is an ex-library book at least the stickers were easy to take off.

Rabid Eye the Dream Art of Rick Veitch gets a 4.88 outta 5.