I recently spoke with graphic artist Mark Poulton, who co-created “Anything Is Possible” with Impact Wrestling star Eddie Edwards. The book is available now through Barnes and Noble and Amazon; check out a few highlights from the call below:
Mark talks about how he got in touch with Eddie about their new book:
I’ve always been a huge wrestling fan, and I had tickets to a local event—I’m in the New Jersey area—I had tickets to a WrestlePro show. I was working on another children’s book at the time for SevenHorns Publishing, and to get myself psyched for that event, I decided to take a break from that book and do a sketch of Eddie Edwards. He was appearing on that card and he’s my favorite Impact wrestler, and I thought the sketch turned out pretty well and I tweeted it to Eddie. I said ‘hey, I took a break from my children’s book to do a sketch of you, I think your story would make a good children’s book’. He responded back pretty quickly and said ‘yea, I’m on board’ and I was like ‘well, I’ll be at this show, we could talk more if you’re serious about this.’
It came together really quickly, very easy. Once Eddie was on board I pitched it to the publisher at SevenHorns, Tasha, and she loved the idea. Everything came together really easily.
Poulton talks about putting together the story arc for their book:
I’m a pretty big wrestling fan, so I had a pretty good idea about Eddie’s career. He wanted to focus on his motto of ‘Anything Is Possible’ so I figured his key moments in his career were winning the [Impact Heavyweight Championship], winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship, and he gave me backstory on some things that I didn’t know about, like his childhood, when he first fell in love with wrestling, his first training and tour of Japan. I used his words to tell the story, and I felt like it was a good arc to focus on his first tour of Japan where he lost every match, and ending it with winning the GHC Heavyweight title. Just to show that anything is possible, you could go from a young up-and-comer who loses all of the time to reaching the very top of your profession.
Did Mark want to add any wrestling or personal influences into the book’s artwork?
It’s pretty consistent; I do a lot of work in children’s books so I try to maintain that style, but I also tried to incorporate some comic book industry artwork. Of course we used the word balloons and stuff like that, but I also write a lot of comic books—I’ve worked for DC Comics, Image Comics—I also wanted to take the story in that direction so it’s a hybrid children’s book / graphic novel.
I had a lot of fun with the American Wolves [artwork]; it’s a double page spread with Davey [Richards] on one side and Eddie on the other. I tried to give that a little bit of a fantasy element with the giant wolf heads in the background; I wanted to make it a little more interesting that just them in the ring together for that part of the story where they get together. I thought something more fantasy oriented would be cool and more engaging for the kids.
Influences on his artwork:
Probably the biggest influence on my art has been my son. I started reading a lot more children’s books than I normally would have. That, and I’m into toys like [Funko] Pop figures—I’m talking to you and I’m looking at Power Ranger Happy Meal toys—so there’s some cool proportions to the big heads with smaller bodies. My son and I are into the Cartoon Network stuff, so we’re into Teen Titans GO!, Gumball, stuff like that.
Mark reveals a ‘bucket list’ idea he’d like to work on with Johnny Impact:
I would definitely like to do more children’s books with wrestlers. In fact, I actually pitched that to the publisher and they were so thrilled with how Eddie’s book turned out that they told me to go for it.
I’d love to work with John Hennigan—John Morrison, Johnny Impact—I love his nickname the ‘Mayor Of Slamtown.’ I just think a children’s book called ‘Welcome To Slamtown’ where you follow a day in the life of the Mayor Of Slamtown and all of the different duties he would have to do in town would be really cool. You could have him doing ribbon cutting ceremonies, but the big thing is keeping all of the Rudos out of town because they’re always trying to mess up Slamtown.
Why are comic books are more popular medium for wrestlers to explore today?
I feel like the wrestlers today are more ‘DIY’ in creating their own little businesses and brands. The Young Bucks just released a children’s book, Colt Cabana was probably the first to release a children’s book, Cody just announced one.
It makes a lot of sense; pro wrestlers are like real-life superheroes, so why wouldn’t kids want to read about them? It just seems like a natural fit to me.
Mark talks about his other current work:
Outside of my book with Eddie, I just did a book with my son called Pizza Tree. It’s an all ages graphic novel; it’s about a little boy that plants a slice of pepperoni in his backyard and an evil pizza tree grows. If you have a child that’s into Goosebumps they’d be into Pizza Tree. We were nominated for Best Kids’ Graphic Novel for the Ringo Awards which were last weekend at Baltimore Comic Con. We didn’t win, but this week we found out we won bronze medal for best kids graphic novel at the Moonbeam Awards. That book is doing really well.
Eddie was a dream partner to work with; I’m so proud of this project. Working with SevenHorns Publishing was great, hopefully we can continue the relationship and do many more wrestling books.
