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Writer Del James, also the longtime Road Manager for Guns N' Roses and a lifelong pro wrestling fan sat down with Decibel to discuss his new pro wrestling-inspired graphic novel Consensual Violence at this link.
On the inspiration for the book, James explained, "The inspiration for Consensual Violence came from watching an El Santo and Blue Demon movie. I don’t remember which one it was, but I was struck by the awesomeness of dudes driving around in convertibles in masks and capes and walking into a bar, all casual, like, “Nothing to see here.” And then I started thinking: How do you make that into something more realistic, something more believable? And that’s where the initial kernels of Consensual Violence started. I wanted to have superheroes without superpowers in a fucked-up situation and somehow make it make more sense than Batman or El Santo. So that was the motivation, so to speak."
When asked about his lifelong love of professional wrestling and why he's stuck with it, James commented:
"There have been moments when I did not give a fuck about professional wrestling. There were moments where the product being put out didn’t interest me. There were moments where I was obsessing with something else, whether it was music or film or whatever, but there’s also times where you’re really caught up in wrestling. In the ’70s, when I was a kid staying up ‘til midnight to watch wrestling on WWOR television, channel nine, it was quite an accomplishment. There were these larger-than-life villains talking shit in their interviews. It’s very seductive, especially to young kids. Then you discover Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest, and other things that take precedence. But then something will happen, whether it’s Saturday Night’s Main Event or the WWFs zeitgeist of Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania, and you tune back in. Then it fades away again once it becomes too cartoony. And I remember… do you know Pat Hoed?
From Brujeria?
Yeah, and he was Scarface the Womanizer in a punk rock band called Foreign Object. Pat and I are good friends, and we used to go to wrestling here in Los Angeles to see Chavo Guerrero and Roddy Piper, just these fantastic cards. We always spoke the language of wrestling, and he turned me on to two VHS tapes of ECW wrestling. That was all I needed to light the fuse again. The shit was so adult, so violent, so extreme. This was in the days where you had to buy a [satellite] dish to see all this stuff, so that’s what I did. And then we’d go to WWF shows here in L.A., and you’d see Zakk Wylde there. You’d see Kerry King. There were moments when the shit was undeniably hot."
On Death Match Wrestling, James said, "There’s almost like this punk rock thing going on in the independent wrestling scene right now with the death matches, the no-ring bar fights, all of that. It’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s festive, it’s interactive. If you don’t move out of the way, you’re going to get to run the fuck over. Circle 6 is a lot of fun. There’s something for everyone. They crosspollinate with a band performing and then wrestlers performing, maybe even some dancers and then some more ultra violence. That’s a perfect evening."
Consensual Violence is being published by Dead Sky Publishing and will be released on 11/25. It can be ordered at this link.
Promotional material:
An aspiring wrestler's life is changed forever when her trainer sexually assaults her, leading her down a dark path for revenge and on a collision course with dirty cops, cartel killers, and a remorseless rapist.
Giulia Brusco was born in Italy and graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Bologna. Her career in comics began in 2000 coloring Star Wars Tales for Dark Horse Comics, followed work with DC Comics. Her most popular works include the Millennium Trilogy adaptations, Scalped, Django Unchained, and Saucer Country for Vertigo Comics. Brusco also worked on adaptations for Marvel of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ender's Shadow, as well as the mature readers’ Max series The Punisher. She has since worked on The Goddamned for Image Comics as well as titles for TKO presents, including Feeding Dangerously. Currently, Brusco lives in London and works on Texas Riders and Judge Dredd for 2000 AD with r.m.Gué ra.
Born and raised in New York, Del James is a meat-eating, pro-choice, sober atheist. He writes horror fiction and is best known for the short story "Without You" that inspired the "November Rain" video by Guns N' Roses. Published in numerous horror anthologies and magazines, James released a collection of short horror stories entitled The Language of Fear that's on its third printing. James has directed music videos as well as writing live television for the Ultimate Fighting Championship but prefers professional wrestling over MMA.
Arjuna Susini was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1984. He graduated from the International School of Comics in Florence in 2008. In 2011, his first comic, Bullet Ballad, was published by BD Edizioni. Since then he's worked on a growing number of titles for a myriad of publishers; Mistry P.I., Shikary Force: Hunters, Made Men, Leone, The Replacer, Heist or How to Steal a Planet, Blood of Sunset, Forever Forward, Lamentation, and as a concept artist for Mighty Box on the game Posthuman: Sanctuary. He's a teacher of the "Scuola internationale di Comics" in Florence.
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