SNAP INTO THIS ILLUSTRATION, OOH YEAH!

There are some people in this world that just scream “draw me.” And then there’s Macho Man Randy Savage—who leapsoff the turnbuckle and demands it.

I recently had the absolute pleasure of illustrating the Madness himself in a commissioned piece, and you better believe I went all in. I chose his early pink-and-yellow gear (because peak ‘80s wrestling should look like a highlighter exploded), and I captured him mid-flight, elbow cocked, coming right for ya. If you ever had the joy of watching Macho Man sail through the air with all the grace of a sequined missile, then you know exactly why I had to draw him this way.

A Little Madness Goes a Long Way

Randy Savage wasn’t just a wrestler. He was a force of nature. The voice? Gravelly perfection. The promos? Unhinged genius. The in-ring ability? Unreal. He could go from top-rope acrobat to technical wizard in the blink of an eye, making every match feel like the main event.

But here’s a fact that might surprise you—before he was snapping into Slim Jims, Savage was swinging for the fences. Yep, Macho Man played professional baseball! Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals right out of high school, he spent a few years in the minors as a catcher. When an injury took him out of the game, he did what any reasonable person would do—reinvented himself as one of the most electrifying wrestlers of all time.

A Flying Tribute

This illustration is my love letter to one of wrestling’s greatest performers—a guy who made everything larger than life, from his wardrobe to his elbow drop to the way he said, “DIG IT!” And if you have a favorite athlete, musician, or pop culture legend you’d love to see immortalized in art, you know where to find me.

OHHH YEAH!

Catching up with the ABCs of Pro Wrestling...

Oh man, it's been a while, blog.
Let's catch you up on the ABC's of Pro Wrestling

• It has a brand new dedicated Tumblr site for it as well

The ABC's of Pro Wrestling - B is for Bodyslam

Hiya kids!

It's Bill Main here with another installment of your favorite Rat Fink-y, weirdo, pro wrestling, t-shirty, ABC booky fantastic-ness!

Whew...that was a mouthful.

When thinking about what piece of wrestling terminology or move might best encapsulate the letter B, I wanted to go super classic. Even people with a passing knowledge of pro wrestling will be aware of the friggin' BODY SLAM! Say it with me now folks, "Baaaaaaahhhhhhdeeeeee Slllllllaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmm!"

Ahhhhhh. Thanks for indulging me in that. What are these illustrations gonna end up as? Definitely a book, hopefully some t-shirts. Got any other ideas for things you might like to see these bad boys and girls as? Let me know in the comment section!

Check out my illustration for the letter A here

ABC's of Pro Wrestling - A is for Atomic Drop

Hey there everybody!

   I'm hoping today finds you feeling good in your respective neighborhoods. Respect to Applebee's. I think that's an Applebee's slogan- maybe not. Either way, even though the answer is literally a few finger presses away- that will have to stay the way it is. Time is of the essence here folks.

   All Applebee's aside, I started a new project! I'm making a children's book (of sorts). I probably won't be reading this to my kid till he's able to decide not to pile drive his schoolmates for fun buuuuuuut maybe your kid has more self control than I perceive mine will have. I digress.

   The project is a collection of illustrations in the style of an alphabet book! Ultimately, I'd like to have it printed and bound and hopefully, have T-shirts made as well.
 
   I loved going to the Pomona Swap Meet with my dad as a kid. When we'd go, I'd walk up and down the aisles of used car parts, checking out old carburetors, beat up fenders and lenses for headlights that no one makes anymore. Yet by far, my favorite thing about going would be when we would turn a corner and see good ol' Bert "The Shirt" Grimm slangin' Ed Roth's Rat Fink T-shirts! My dad would always buy me one (they were really fairly priced and Bert is an awesome salesman) and it started my love and obsession for all things Roth.

   I bring you the first illustration from The ABC's of Pro Wrestling.

Click here for the letter B!

More wrestler character designs

   Hi there, friends and neighbors. I've slowly been chipping away at the wrestler designs I started a while back. I've reworked a few things I felt weren't working and kicked out a couple new designs. I've got a name for their wrestling organization as well: the Intergalactic Wrestling Federation. The IWF. I'll post some logo sketches soonish as well as some promo cards for each combatant.
   Here's where we are so far:

Updated: Bruise E. Homemaker

Updated: Lord Deville

Updated: Nigel Quarkbottom

Grimly Mynock 5'5" 315 lbs. From the Cave Planet Holio

"Supernova" Luto Graham 6'10" 310 lbs. From Hulkaterrania

Wrestlers VS Aliens

Aliens have invaded our world and the only way to stop them is to wrassle em' into submission!

 

I set a goal to create character designs for an imaginary wrestling video game or cartoon. The self-imposed prompt was to give the characters a whimsical feeling while still allowing them to look powerful.

Bruise E. Homemaker
6"0"
325 lbs
From Pasadena, CA

Finn McCracken
6'2"
380 lbs
From the Scottish Highlands

Lord Deville
6'9"
330 lbs
From Parts Unknown

Johnny Lightning
6'4"
301 lbs
From the Concrete Jungle

Thin Lizzie
5'9"
130 lbs
From Detroit, MI

Glorox
7'2"
441 lbs
From the Kartac Peninsula on Glutoc 5

Nigel Quarkbottom

6'5"

301 lbs

From the Wrong Side of the Rings of Saturn

This is an ongoing project.

Let me know what you guys think!

Jake the Snake Roberts

Here is another of my favorite wrestlers from childhood. Jake "the Snake" Roberts is the creator of the DDT (essentially, you grab a dude's head like you would for a suplex, and then proceed to plow it through the mat by dropping onto your own back while still holding said dude's head). He was always kind of scary and mysterious to me but not necessarily because of his snake Damien.

Finished up an old sketch

Cleaned up that Undertaker sketch I posted a little while ago. I've decided I'd like to put together a character design portfolio. I'm not sure where that'll be hosted. Any ideas? I'm leaning toward my Behance portfolio but am open to suggestions.

Some Etsy custom orders

I recently had a pretty cool Etsy order from a very cool girlfriend who has a very lucky boyfriend. She wanted to surprise her man for his birthday and she had seen an old wooden cutout of Randy Savage that I made long ago. Asking if I could make another AND a Ric Flair was like asking a if I'd like like another cinnamon roll cake for my birthday....yes I would like that very much thank you. 

If you're wanting to order some custom wrestlers, why don't you head over to my Etsy and send me a conversation?

Process shots:

These are hand cut, hand painted, ready to be hung on the wall original pieces of art. They are painted on 1/4" birch panels and they're fun to have staring at you. Albeit, I only get to see them staring at me for a couple days before I send them off.