REVIEW: The Promotion

THIS comic is awesome, pure and simple. Rob Schamberger has produced close to THE PERFECT PRO WRESTLING COMIC.

The Promotion feels gritty and REAL - and it does something very few other wrestling comics have tried to do and that's look at the backstage dramas between promoters and the larger-than-life personalities who worked for them during the territorial days.

While you see some recognisable faces - Dick Murdoch and Ric Flair, for example - the comic is entirely fictional yet totally believable. Rob's spot-on dialogue is a big factor in that department.

Rob describes The Promotion as "a fictional drama based around a wrestling promotion in 1970s' Kansas City...a Mad Men of professional wrestling". That sounds reasonable to me.

Having recently read the autobiographies of both Harley Race and Gary Hart, a lot in this comic rang true...to the point that I wondered whether Rob has some friends "in the biz" - possibly even from that era of pro wrestling - and he's been picking their brains.

The art could've been problematic if it stayed as just B&W pen art, as it's a bit rough in places. But Rob's cleverly used a watercolour-style colouring (almost like a colour wash) through the art – giving it a trippy, psychedelic 1970s feel. It suits the story Rob's telling wonderfully well.

And, to be frank, I was reading the comic for the story, not the art anyway.

What can I say? I loved the shit out of this comic. 4 stars, 8/10.

The first chapter of The Promotion can be found at http://www.thewrestlingpromotion.com (updated twice a week) and on http://www.myebook.com (first chapter available for $0.50).