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Professional Wrestling in Comic Strips, Illustrations, Cartoons & Clip Art, Volume 1
From the time I was a toddler, I was a fanatic about cartoons and comic strips. When you consider the fact that our local newspaper, the Bradenton Herald, printed 18-20 comic strips each day, I estimate that, during the 12 years that I lived there, I read more than 78,000 strips. And when you consider the fact that each comic strip had four panels, that amounts to having read 312,000 individual story panels. That being the case, it has always been in the back of my mind to publish a book of old comic strips. What I never considered until the past few years was that such a book could be combined with my love of wrestling nostalgia.
When I began to research and write about pro wrestling, the odd illustration or comic strip would occasionally surface. I kept a file of these "treasures," not because I planned to publish them, but because ... well, they're comics, and I wanted to save them. Over the years, I discovered hundreds of these illustrations, all pro-wrestling themed. A few years ago, it suddenly hit me that I just might have enough illustrations to fill a book, so I began to date and catalog them.
What I didn't realize was just how monumental this task would turn out to be. At this point, I have amassed close to 6,500 images, most of which will be published in this and future volumes. This volume alone, the first in a series of who knows how many, boasts an incredible 791 cartoon images, and many of those images have multiple cartoon images within them.
Comic strips featuring recurring character didn't really take off in popularity until circa 1918. The first pro wrestling "mention" I found in a recurring character strip is the Feb. 4, 1927, episode of "$alesman Sam." The first recurring "storyline" about pro wrestling appeared in Gene Ahern's "Our Boarding House" single-panel strip for 12 days in 1930. After that, pro wrestling became a regular subject in that strip for many, many years with the tall-tale-telling Major Hoople bragging incessantly about his exploits as a wrestler.
New ground was broken when illustrator Victor (Vic) Forsythe ran a 53-day pro wrestling storyline in his "Joe Jinks" strip. Pete Humus, a fighter managed by Jinks, wrestled — and defeated! — Everett Marshall. He also wrestled Abie Coleman and Don George, both of whom were big names in wrestling during that era. Six months later, Forsythe returned to the theme in a 45-episode series with a matchup between Dynamite (a boxer managed by Joe) and a wrestler named Dick Radanovich.
Not every entry has to do with "professional" wrestling. Also included are an occasional boxing strip, or comics about amateur wrestling, and even illustrations in which the word "wrestling" is mentioned.
All that goes to say that I am stoked to make this series available to everyone as I know that many wrestling fans are also comic book fans. Enjoy this trip into cartoonland. I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed putting it all together.
— Scott
When I began to research and write about pro wrestling, the odd illustration or comic strip would occasionally surface. I kept a file of these "treasures," not because I planned to publish them, but because ... well, they're comics, and I wanted to save them. Over the years, I discovered hundreds of these illustrations, all pro-wrestling themed. A few years ago, it suddenly hit me that I just might have enough illustrations to fill a book, so I began to date and catalog them.
What I didn't realize was just how monumental this task would turn out to be. At this point, I have amassed close to 6,500 images, most of which will be published in this and future volumes. This volume alone, the first in a series of who knows how many, boasts an incredible 791 cartoon images, and many of those images have multiple cartoon images within them.
Comic strips featuring recurring character didn't really take off in popularity until circa 1918. The first pro wrestling "mention" I found in a recurring character strip is the Feb. 4, 1927, episode of "$alesman Sam." The first recurring "storyline" about pro wrestling appeared in Gene Ahern's "Our Boarding House" single-panel strip for 12 days in 1930. After that, pro wrestling became a regular subject in that strip for many, many years with the tall-tale-telling Major Hoople bragging incessantly about his exploits as a wrestler.
New ground was broken when illustrator Victor (Vic) Forsythe ran a 53-day pro wrestling storyline in his "Joe Jinks" strip. Pete Humus, a fighter managed by Jinks, wrestled — and defeated! — Everett Marshall. He also wrestled Abie Coleman and Don George, both of whom were big names in wrestling during that era. Six months later, Forsythe returned to the theme in a 45-episode series with a matchup between Dynamite (a boxer managed by Joe) and a wrestler named Dick Radanovich.
Not every entry has to do with "professional" wrestling. Also included are an occasional boxing strip, or comics about amateur wrestling, and even illustrations in which the word "wrestling" is mentioned.
All that goes to say that I am stoked to make this series available to everyone as I know that many wrestling fans are also comic book fans. Enjoy this trip into cartoonland. I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed putting it all together.
— Scott
Paperback
Published July 1, 2025
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December 25, 2025
Covering a wide variety of styles ranging from Japanese woodcuts of sumo wrestlers in the 1840s to more conventional comic strips in the early 1920s, Scott Teal has assembled an album of comic art and illustrations that reveal the early history of professional wrestling. Pulling from sources all over the world, the spectrum of art styles is fascinating. Everything is here, from crude line drawings used as column fillers to extremely detailed scenes of actual wrestling matches. Effectively every use of cartoon artwork in newspapers is represented here from event advertisements to product endorsements to humorous caricatures to political commentary. And this was a time period when a newspaper wouldn't hesitate to devote half a page to a single illustration, so some of these artists really had room to stretch out.
Progressing through the book also reveals an evolution of the newspapers' attitudes about the sport. Earlier cartoons are often lionizing the participants and presenting straight ballyhoo for their achievements and abilities, but later the tone shifts as the suspect nature of many of the matches, wrestlers and the sport itself as 'the fix' becomes increasingly obvious. Also evident is the shift in popularity from the European Greco-Roman style to catch-as-catch-can that would eventually overtake the pro sport. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to and am eager to dig into the next volume.
Progressing through the book also reveals an evolution of the newspapers' attitudes about the sport. Earlier cartoons are often lionizing the participants and presenting straight ballyhoo for their achievements and abilities, but later the tone shifts as the suspect nature of many of the matches, wrestlers and the sport itself as 'the fix' becomes increasingly obvious. Also evident is the shift in popularity from the European Greco-Roman style to catch-as-catch-can that would eventually overtake the pro sport. I enjoyed this book a lot more than I expected to and am eager to dig into the next volume.
Displaying 1 of 1 review