Woman Wrestling Comics: Sensacional De Luchas 46

  Hello and welcome back to the blog. Sorry I haven't been updating recently but life happens and it gets in the way of blogging.

 If you are here for the first time then looking at my statistics, you are probably here because you searched for "Women Wrestling" or "Women Wrestling Comics" so I think you're going to like  today's post. 

 In the past I've covered comics from the USA, Japan and the UK (check HERE) but this is the first time I've done a comic from Mexico.  

 It makes sense that Lucha Libre and comics have a long history together. People more knowledgeable than me have pointed out that Luchadores are treated as larger than life character, practically cartoon superheroes.  And in fact a pocket-sized digest called "Sensacional De Luchas" ran from 1986 to 1954 starring real wrestlers in comic thrills & adventure. (ComicVine page can be found here: sensacional-de-luchas. 

 Given that during this period women's wrestling seems to have been a bigger deal in Mexico than the USA, it makes sense that some issues feature lady wrestlers. (Although I don't know if any real female stars got their own comic) 

 So, I reckon it's time to start posting pictures.  

 Sadly, we never actually get to see a Nun performing dropkicks. 

My Spanish is non-existent to the point there is at least one retired Spanish Teacher who has nightmares about

 trying to  get me to understand regular verbs So that means I had work out what the story is by panels alone. 

As near as I can work out, it goes like this: 

 Our beautiful heroine is a lady wrestler with a career in the slumps.

She keeps getting knocked about by bigger, scarier women.

I haven't been able to work out what Blondie is called so let's just call her "Blondie"

I refuse to believe that Blondie is really called Bertha.

She's just not Bertha material. 

Anyway poor Blondie is getting a lot of flak from her boyfriend, management and the 

other girls but then has an encounter with a nun that gives her a new view on life.

It also helps her with the whole "Not getting battered" thing too.

Brunette seems a bit miffed here. Maybe she though she was in for an early night.

Montage time!

Art looks like something from the 1950s, doesn't it? 

Blondie also starts spending quality time with the local nuns. 

Since nobody is wrestling in those pages I didn't scan them.   

Not sure what happens next but our heroine's confidence takes a bit of a knock again. 

Having an opponent try to rip your tongue out will do that to you.

 

So after a bit of a pep-talk from her boyfriend Blondie pulls that wrestling classic and secretly returns as a masked mystery woman.

 You'd think the glorious mane of blonde hair would give the game away but 1. this is Mexico and Lucha Libre has it's own rules and 2. this is the 80s when "smart" fans weren't on a dozen message boards telling everybody what Wrestler A had for breakfast. 

Anyway, Blondie has decided to stop being so nice.

Including the Mike Tyson special.

Having won, she immediately reveals "It's me, Mexico. It was me all along"

which may have rendered the whole thing pointless.

And we get a happy ending where the queen of the local nuns congratulates  Blondie on almost maiming another woman.

Ok then.

The final page is a pinup of some dashing chaps.

On the whole this was an interesting read and if I ever get my paws on more issues I may can them. 

That's all folks!

Womens Wrestling In Manga

 In a blatant attempt to garner some more traffic I have decided to revisit a subject that you lot always seem to enjoy: Womens wrestling. (Which gets more pageviews than every other subject put together.)

 More specifically, I'm going to put up some manga pics depicting women trying to inflict mayhem upon each other. I don't know any of the titles so if you happen to know, please share the wisdom.

 Blonde beauty takes in the cheers of the crowd. One guy in particular is VERY happy to see her. 

 

A Small Selection Of Women Wrestling Art

 It's about I revisited a subject that consistently gets my top pageviews: Women's wrestling. Or more specifically, artwork about women's wrestling.  These all tend towards the more humorous side of things.

Since I have no idea where I found these or the original artists, don't expect anything in the way of analysis.  Hope you like them. 

Orange suit is clearly more worried about her...father?.. than her opponent. 

Isn't it embarrassing when you get all tangled up like that? 

This is the poster for a Mexican film called "Mascara contra Bikini" which I am obviously  curious about. 

Also curious about this. Is it a comic? Is there actual wrestling in the comic or just a misleading cover? 

This looks old. REALLY old. 

Ooh, check that sadistic look on black-suit's face. 

Happy the woman who gets paid for her hobbies.

Now this artist I can tell you; Sergio Aragones has a style of his own that you can spot from a mile away.

And lastly, a panel from the Kimen-Gumi Manga that fits better here than the Manga wrestling collection I might do later. 

That's all folks. 

 

Womens Wrestling In Comics: Jaime Hernandez - Queen of The Ring

 

  I've previously mentioned  Love And Rockets and the offshoot Whoa Nelly! in the context of women's Pro Wrestling so when I heard that Jaime Hernandez was releasing a book of his unpublished wrestling drawings I promptly added it to my shopping  list. 

  I don't feel like I wasted my £15.32 because what I received was a decent sized, nicely bound  hardback book on quality paper and the contests were equally impressive. 

 What you get is a mixture of "pinups", "magazine covers" and "action shots" mostly presented as standalone pieces, although Mr Hernandez does pop up from time to time to offer commentary on his creative process.  

 The artwork is really very good. Not over-fussy but with some impressive touches with movement and personality. 

 The whole book comes across as a loving tribute to the 70s wrestling era; when lady wrestlers were solidly built women with solidly built hair and unflattering Mom swimsuits, and almost certainly hard as nails. 

I think if you're a fan of   Love and Rockets or old-school women's wrestling, you will like this. 

That's All Folks

Women's Wrestling Comics: Scorer

I write about a lot of things on this blog - It is called "Assorted Thoughts..." after all - but there's one topic that always goes down well and it combines two of my favourite things. Comics and Wrestling. Women's wrestling to be exact.

 So it it's rather fortunate that while I was digging around in a suitcase full of miscellaneous crap, in search of something I never managed to find,  I stumbled across an old scrapbook of newspaper cuttings. Opening it up I immediately found something I could use.

 "Scorer" was a British newspaper strip that ran in The Daily Mirror between 1989 and 2011 and as the name suggests, it was all about Football.  As I'm not, and never have been, remotely interested in football I never paid it much attention up until one particular storyline got my attention.
   While on tour in the USA footballing hero Dave Storry gets involved with  Lady Wrestler Marigold Storm - so of course we get some in-ring action.

I don't have all of it (and what I do have is suffering from a bad case of sellotape pox) but I thought you might like to see The Storm Sisters in action. I'm fairly certain this is an Internet Exclusive.

  Since when has California had a cattle industry?  

   Just for a change the writer does actually know what the holds are called.

 Cool move. Maybe Marigold has done a bit of Lucha Libre in her time.

Loving the little sound balloons "Gnzz" Heh heh.

 I honestly don't know what year this is from. Somewhere between 1989 and 1992 is the best I can manage, so if you know more, or happen to have the rest of the storyline then I will put your name on this blog surrounded by golden stars with the words "Most Excellent Dude" in big neon letters.

That's all folks. 

Women's Wrestling Comics: Grappling Gertie's Schooldays (1992)

The best women's wrestling comic cover ever? Could be. 

  Back in 2012 I did a post about Gertrude Williams aka Leopard Lily, prim teacher turned lady wrestler and star of the only British comics ever to feature women's wrestling.  (Read it HERE) 

 I said at the time that there was a later prequel and if I ever got my hands on a copy, I'd post some scans. 

Well, it took a while but I finally have a copy of "Grappling Gertie's Schooldays" - a a tale of plucky schoolgirls, Arab princesses, nefarious villains and large, scary women with alliterative names. 

The Further Adventures Of Grappling Gertie (Continued)

The story so far

 Gertrude Williams is the headmistress at a boarding school for girls. But in the evenings she dons a mask and fetching bodysuit to become the wrestler Leopard Lily. 

  After receiving a blackmail threat , Gertie asked the two pupils who already knew her secret to discover the culprit. This they did and locked the girl in an abandoned shed to await Gertie's displeasure. But when Ms. Williams and her sidekicks went back for a little chat, their prisoner had gone.

 That night Gertie received a phone call from local villain Sam Roper, who revealed that he had the missing girl and not-so-politely suggested that Gertie take a dive in her upcoming championship bout. If you ahven't read it yet, Part One is HERE

Now read on.

Girls comics really love alliterative names, don't they?

The Further Adventures Of Grappling Gertie.

  A while back I did a post on one of the most unusual characters in British comics - Gertrude Williams, the staid English teacher who moonlighted as masked lady wrestler Leopard Lily. (READ IT HERE) 
 Well, ever since I've been keeping an eye out for the prequel "Grappling Gertie's Schooldays" and in the process stumbled across an intriguing thread on the Comics UK Forum, which revealed that Gertie had a story in the 1992 Bunty Annual.
"This I have to see" I thought and immediately trotted over to Ebay. The result was a charmingly old-fashioned story of blackmail and plucky schoolgirls that could have been written at any point between 1992 and 1971.

 Rather than just post the action pics, I'm going to post the entire story in two easily-digestible installments.  Hope you like it.

 The story opens with Ms. Williams , now gone up in the world as headmistress to a girls boarding school, pulling two rowdy pupils into her office for a wee chat...

Womens Wrestling Comics - More Lucha Doll Mai

 Posts about women's wrestling are consistently my biggest source of  pageviews so I thought I'd do something I've been meaning to do for a while: Put up some more scans from Yumiki Asuka's wrestling manga "Lucha Doll Mai" (Part one : HERE )

 The girls in exuberant mood. 

The Art Of Women's Wrestling: Some more pics for you.

I've had a few wrestling pics loitering about my "Pics for Blog" folder for a while so I thought I'd put them up. Hope you like them.

Starting with one of the first comics to feature women wrestlers.

(Fight Comics, USA - somewhere in the 1940s)

Which I found here: Digital Comic Museum

Womens Wrestling Comics - Futaba-Kun Change!

(The cover to the US Edition)

  Shimeru Futaba is not having an easy life.  As if High School wasn't difficult enough, he now has an unfortunate habit of turning into a girl every time he gets stressed or excited. 

 Since his school includes a (male) teacher who's developed a special interest, a crazy masked girl who keeps showing up to cause chaos and a gym teacher who uses machine-guns to get people's attention, Futaba gets stressed a lot.

 At this point you're probably thinking "Ranma clone" and you would be (mostly) right.  Hiroshi Aro's 8 volume series does have a certain amount to offer though: "Futaba-kun Change" mostly eschews complicated love-tangles and martial arts wackiness in favour of slapstick and our hero's attempts to cope with his new life. It is very,very silly but Futaba (in either form)  and romantic interest Misaki are rather more likeable than the cocky Ranma and his stable of psychotic Tsunderes. 

 As we shall see, the artwork isn't bad either. 

  In Volume 4 the Konishiki sisters show up to avenge their brother's defeat in an earlier chapter. Neither Futaba nor Misaki actually had anything to do with that but since they are both on the wrestling team they somehow end up challenged to a tag-team match.

Karin and Anzu. Very strong and very skilled. Luckily, they are also very stupid.  

Misaki arrives for the match in her swimsuit and then wonders why there are so many spectators. 

Anzu unleashes her devastating kick attack.

This causes Misaki to have a wardrobe malfunction so she hurriedly tags Futaba in. Did I mention that Futaba transforms when he gets excited?  Having the girl of his dreams fall out of her suit would probably count as "Exciting"  While he's struggling not to change,  he's not paying attention to his opponents and the inevitable happens.

 Things are not looking good for our babyfaces at the moment. Misaki is still trying to fix her suit and Futaba has just been launched out of the ring and through a classroom window. 

 But all is not lost as a new challenger appears.

 

Girl-version Futaba is here to save the day.

And enquiring minds want to know how she got changed so fast.

   Taking advantage of the Konishiki girls' confusion, Futaba-chan quickly takes control.

 Futaba-chan punishes Anzu 

 Then puts a hurting on Karin. Well you wouldn't want her to feel left out.

 Remember that Futaba is really a boy in a girl's body. 

In a minute he's going to realise that his face is level with Karin's boobs 

and get a wee bit distracted.  

Which leads to:

Luckily the Konishiki girls have an Achilles heel which leads to their downfall.

If you want to read the whole thing online, you can find it here; 

http://mangafox.me/manga/futaba_kun_change/v04/c002/1.html

I'd recommend checking out the rest of the series as well. It's endearingly daft and does have more to offer than fanservice and silliness. 

I'll finish with one last pic of Futaba in girl-form.

 And one of these days I'll finally get round to posting some more Lucha-Doll Mai. That's it for now folks. See you in a day or so.