The opening line of The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling is a bold assertion: professional wrestling is “The One True Sport.” While this may get some eye rolls, Aubrey Sitterson and Chris Moreno marry comics and professional wrestling into an exhaustive and striking history that just may change some minds.
Moreno is a Los Angeles-based comics artist and Sitterson is a freelance comic writer. This book marks the first time the entire history of professional wrestling has been covered in a single comprehensive volume.
The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling begins with wrestling’s carnival roots, where its format developed. Sitterson and Moreno scrupulously examine key figures, promotions, matches, and developments from North America, Japan, Mexico, and Britain before shifting focus to the contemporary scene.
The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling works double duty, managing to meet Sitterson’s goal of functioning as both a serious, in-depth history for hardcore fans and a primer for the uninitiated.
Sitterson relishes in the opportunity to explore the nitty-gritty details that diehard fans will love and deep-diving into key fighting style differences that would define the Japanese scene.
Such differences throughout the industry are rooted in necessary historical and cultural contexts, such as the Aztec and Mayan background of Mexican lucha libre masks.
Despite all this intimate detail, readers who don’t know a face (a hero) from a heel (a villain) aren’t cast aside. The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling is shockingly digestible.
Between chapters, single pages define key wrestling concepts in simple language. The first breaks down all the vital terminology—everything from “kayfabe” to “booking”—while others unpack ideas like “menace.” These ingenious sections form the backbone of a newcomer’s understanding.
The writing is also superb. You can feel the passion in each carefully chosen word with sentences coming together into something that truly feels like a story being told. Fantastic lettering by Rus Wooton adds just the right emphasis to carry this home.
The writing alone creates a gripping story that becomes difficult to put down.
This is elevated even higher by Moreno’s incredible art. Panels pop with great colour and expression. The art has a physicality and immediacy, not just in the actual wrestling, but in the figures themselves. Muscles are striking and defined, likenesses clear and recognizable, and faces phenomenally expressive. You can feel the pain of being locked in a figure-four through the panel.
Sitterson and Moreno craft a history serving hardcore fans and newcomers equally.
The writing and art are top notch, forming a cohesive final product that provides a nuanced, total view of “The One True Sport,” sure to get a pop from all readers.
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Image by Farhan Tasin
