Boom Studios held a panel at New York Comic Con to talk about its new licensing partnership with the WWE to bring a new ongoing title based in the World Wrestling Entertainment.
The announcement , made at San Diego Comic-Con, took the wrestling and comic book world by surprise and now at the NYCC panel, writer Dennis Hopeless and editors Bryce Carlson, Eric Harburn and Jasmine Amiri spoke to the room of wrestling fans to explain how the idea came to Boom Studios and what Hopeless expects to do in the first stories of the ongoing.
It was revealed that WWE came to Boom Studios after they visiting the Boom Studios booth at New York Comic Con 2015. They were really impressed with the licensed comics that they did (including Transformers, GI Joe and more) and the two came together to bring the WWE to the printed page.
What amazed the Boom Studios team about the WWE announcement was how many artists and writers came “out of the woodwork” who grew up with wrestling in the 80s, 90s to work on the new comics in some way.
The first WWE/Boom comic will be the WWE: Then, Now, Forever one-shot that will set the stage for the ongoing series. The 40-page book will still cost only $3.99 and be shipped out in November.
Rob Schamberger was an artist who approached Boom about doing a story.
“He [Schamberger] really wanted to do a comic and he wanted to do a short story of Sasha Banks,” Amiri said. “It’s gorgeous and it’s all painted. There’s a little of Eddie Guerrero, which is Sasha’s inspiration in it.”
Rob Gillery is also doing a New Day time travel story.
But the main ongoing story, which Hopeless is penning, will begin with the breakup of the Shield.
“It follows the lead up to and the breakup of the Shield,” Hopeless said. “We really delve into what was going into Seth’s minds. And I get to write a Seth Rollins promo, which is the highlight of my career, and the three having a bbq. We wanted to focus on the humanity. We know Seth rollins, the wrestler and the promo artist but we get to see the last few days of the shield which is very fun.”
Hopeless grew up in the Attitude Era and was an WCW guy but didn’t get hooked back into wrestling until Jason Aaron sucked him back in.
WWE #1 will begin in January and it’s the start of a new ongoing series.
“WWE #1 will spin out of the one-shot and the first arc will be Seth Rollins-centric,” Harburn said. “And without giving too much away, each arc will focus on a different Shield member until we get to events in recent history. Each will have dramatic thematic material that will dovetail together.”
“We take Seth from winning Money in the Bank and each arc will focus on the different guys,” Hopeless added. “If you like the wrestlers, promos and fighting you’ll love it.”
The Boom Studios team revealed that there will be connecting covers that will form a giant ring for a huge Royal Rumble. The first cover is of AJ Styles facing off against Shawn Michaels.
The crowd also got into the panel by asking questions for the panel. Finn Balor and the Undertaker were brought up and the panel assured that there will be plenty of backup stories and creative teams who want to work on different stories.
WWE’s past if pretty much fair game. WWE and Boom Studios are in constant contact with each other about the comic books and the WWE are not stingy with what Boom can do in their stories. So past factions like the NWO and Sting can be used hypothetically.
Former wrestlers who are overshadowed by recent controversies like Hulk Hogan and Chyna were brought up and the Boom team did say that they would like to as long as WWE approves.
Fantasy bookings in the comics are something Boom Studios has thought about and the panel urged the crowd to let them know on Twitter and other forms of communication what they want in the WWE comics.
WWE: Then, Now and Forever is available in November while the new ongoing will begin January 2017.
So what do you think of the new WWE comic books? Let us know if you plan to read them in the comments section below.
