Razorwire McGuire #1 is a comic written by Stephen Rios and illustrated by Jordan Di Renzo. A wrestling promotion must deal with wrestlers who take things too far and promoters who aren’t going far enough. This is comic with some dashes of horror that looks at pro wrestling in a realistic way with characters that each have their own thing going on. There isn’t really a main character here but there are four people who make up the central cast. The first person we meet is Wombat/Larry who is a levelheaded younger babyface who seems like a good guy. The second man is Razor/Kurt who is guy who takes liberties in the ring and has a very aggressive demeanor. The owner of this promotion is Hank, a former wrestler who is trying to keep things afloat and people happy. The leading lady is Debbie Wheeler, a successful business owner whose father used to run the promotion. The story begins with a match between Wombat and Razor that doesn’t go the way it should. Afterwards we learn about the characters themselves and what kind of history they have with each other as well as what will be the driving force for this story. This takes place in the Midwest and there is that classic wrestling theme of the struggling promotion that is trying to get hot again. The action here is mainly pro wrestling based with slams and whatnot but there are some very gory and bloody moments. The pacing is slower than average as there are plenty of conversations to be had in between the action with at least a few pages being wordy. The tone is slightly tense from the outset and there are a few instances where the intensity is cranked up. The dialogue has some wrestling lingo and can get aggressive and angry depending on who is talking. This is a debut comic that sets the scene by giving us fleshed-out characters and a multi-layered plot that’ll have you hooked.

            The art here is detailed and drawn in a style of comics from the 70’s and 80’s with some slight grittiness. The colors are realistic and the lighting and shadows are used skillfully. This takes place primarily indoors but we do get a glimpse of some rolling hills and wooded areas. The main location is the arena that houses the fights with scenes taking place in the ring, in the offices, by the lockers, and in the parking lot. The backgrounds consistently have parts of the environment in them which is great in a conversation-heavy comic. The expression level here is slightly above-average with the range being mostly normal with some grimmer and sinister looks. The faces sport a good amount of detail so small changes in their expressions hold weight and add to the moment. The violence here is of the pro wrestling with some much gorier and bloodier moments strewn throughout. The action scenes have decent flow so you might get thrown off by the sequences and there are at least three separate combat instances.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories dealing with pro wrestling in the real world with a dash of gritty horror starring more than a few people and taking place in the Midwest than this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood, gore, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“…I’ll admit we don’t pull numbers like we used to.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awfulthoughtscomic/razorwire-mcguire-1/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22

Violent Pages: 9, for 41% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 5% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”