The Atomic Elbow Issue Number Four.

Well, you guys... we did it. Four issues of this thing came out in the same calendar year. I don't know why that matters, but it does.



I'm pretty proud of this one. I mean, I'm pretty proud of all of them, but this guy's got what it takes, you know? I apologize for my pride. I hope you don't think I'm bragging. Anyway, this one's got an "On the Road" report that I wrote about the time I went to two Chikara shows:



An interview with comics artist, ring gear designer and super nice person Jill Thompson:



An article about The Great American Bash 1992 by Chris Sims:



An interview with Chuck Taylor featuring photos by Zia Hiltey:



An article about Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy by Stewart Voegtlin with an illustration by Beaver:



And a comic by Phil Redmon:



That's not all it's got. There's some other stuff in this one, too, but I didn't feel like taking any more pictures because it was time to eat dinner. I can't find my camera, anyway. I took all those pictures with my phone. Welcome to the future.

You can, as always, buy the Atomic Elbow at The Official Atomic Elbow Online Store.

Thanks!

So, here's what's going on...

Trying like hell to get the 4th issue out by the end of the year. Not sure if it's going to happen, but no matter what it's gonna be close. It's gonna be really good, though. And I'm still gonna call it a 2012 issue even if it's actually printed in January, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

Most of it is on this flash drive right here on my desk. It's a yellow 4GB flash drive made by Memorex. Not that the 4th issue is 4GB in size, mind you. It's like 100MB or something. But that's before I convert it to a .pdf.

This is the kind of stuff you guys like knowing, right?

So, I have these t-shirts...

Hey, you know how you like wearing shirts? Or, maybe you don't like that. In which case, you know how the social contract kind of dictates that you put a shirt on when you go out in public? Well, I'm sure you have many, many fine shirts in your wardrobe, but I would like to suggest that you maybe add another one to the collection. I hope that's not too forward of me. You see, I have some shirts here that have the name of my wrestling fanzine and a wrestling related image on them.



I almost typed that I made these shirts, but other than editing the fanzine named in the shirt's image, I basically did nothing to make these shirts exist. The art was created by the UK's greatest living visual artist who has ever designed a t-shirt for my wrestling fanzine, Sean Wárs. Here's a better look at that art before it was changed to line art for screen-printing purposes:


You guys, I have no idea how to type that diacritical mark over the "a" in Sean's name, so I have to google and copy/paste it every time I type it. I should probably learn to use my computer. Oh, wasn't I writing about t-shirts?



So, these shirts were designed by Sean Wárs and screen-printed by my friend Mike. I was going to help him do it, but we couldn't ever work out our schedules and Mike is super nice so he just went ahead and did it himself. He didn't have to do that. Mike is awesome. Mike runs a record label called Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records and you should click on that link and buy lots of stuff. Oh, but also buy one of my shirts. I'm getting to that part.

This is a die-hard limited edition t-shirt. There are only 40 of them. I'm only going to sell 32. This means that I'll be selling 8 each of sizes small, medium, large and extra large. I know that some people will want a shirt that is outside of this size range and I'm seriously sorry that I cannot accomodate you right now. If these sell well, I'll probably do another run in different colors that will include a wider range of sizes.

And now we come to the delicate matter of payment. Look, I feel pretty bad about asking you to give me money for the "privilege" of walking around with an advertisement for my 'zine on you. Most t-shirts people wear are basically billboards, and when you think about it, paying for a t-shirt with a logo on it is essentially the same as giving Pizza Hut or whatever a handful of cash and then they get to paint a Pizza Hut ad on your roof. They've got your money and you're doing their promotional work for them. That's a pretty good deal, if you're Pizza Hut. So in this equation, I suppose I'm Pizza Hut. Sorry for being Pizza Hut, you guys. I probably shouldn't have typed all that. Maybe I just typed myself out of some sales.

Anyway, I'm going to have to charge money for these shirts. I looked around and it seems like ten dollars is a pretty fair price for a t-shirt, so I'm selling these for nine. The US Postal Service will charge me around $3.50 to mail these things to you in the US, $5.00 to Canada and Mexico, and $10.50 to send one to any destination not on the continent of North America.

So, buy some shirts at the Official Atomic Elbow Online Store. I'll send you a sticker, too.

Look what's going to happen:

Coming soon in The Atomic Elbow #4.



It's the Kentucky Gentleman Chuck Taylor!

So, I was on a podcast again...

You guys know the Wrestlespective podcast? It's a good one. And the dude who makes it, his name is Jason, and he's a great guy. Anyway, I was on that thing again to talk about The Miracle Violence Connection (Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams) vs. The Steiner Brothers from WCW Beach Blast 1992.



It was fun. I like talking to Jason. And I like you listening to me talk to Jason. So, yeah, if you have some time and if you feel like it, maybe you'd like to hear us talk. Here is a link to the episode on the Wrestlespective page, or you can get to it through iTunes or whatever. Thanks!

So, I went to some wrestling shows...

This weekend, I went to Chikara's shows in Alabama and North Carolina. They were both, as you would expect, great.

I am working on the fourth and fifth issues right now. I expect #4 to be out by the end of the year. I know that's a window of about 10 weeks, but I don't know how much more specific I can be. Sorry.

Here's a photo of me with Ophidian and The Batiri. You know it'll probably be on the back cover of The Atomic Elbow soon, but not in color, so, you know, consider it a preview or something.



Thanks for paying attention to the wrestling 'zine I make. You guys are the best.

So, I have these stickers...

I had some stickers made. They look pretty good. I did it because I read an interview with Pete from Sticker Guy in an issue of The Atomic Heat Ray fanzine and I thought "hey! I should have some stickers made." And here we are.



Do people buy stickers? Is that a thing that happens? I can mail them out like they are a letter, so postage would only be 45¢ or, you know, one "forever" stamp. But it seems ridiculous to just mail one sticker, doesn't it? I don't know. So if you send me $1.50, I will mail you three of these stickers. Does that sound fair? I think it does. I hope so.



These stickers are made of vinyl, so you can put them on stop signs or city buses or cop cars or park benches and they won't wash away in the rain. Not that I'm saying you should put them on those things, mind you, I'm just noting that you totally could do it.

I'm not going to put the stickers on the Official Atomic Elbow Online Store because I can only put 5 items up at a time before I have to pay them and I am cheap, so you'll just have to send me a paypal to secondperiod[at]gmail[period]com. Is that okay? I really hope it is okay.

Box Brown talks about his Andre the Giant book.

Remember back in The Atomic Elbow #1 there was that awesome comic about Andre the Giant in Japan? You should remember this. Because it was awesome.

Anyway, that comic was part of a larger project that Box Brown has been working on for a long time. I'm really excited about it, and you should be, too.

Box Brown recently gave an interview to the website YandP.tv about his work on the Andre the Giant book, and it's great. You should go read it. And start saving your pennies so you can buy that Andre the Giant book when it comes out. It's about time we got an Andre biography that's actually good. That Andre book by Michael Krugman that WWE published in 2009 is a piece of garbage.

Anyway, click here to read the interview with Box Brown. He's great.

The Atomic Elbow at King of Trios

It shouldn't be any secret that Chikara's King of Trios is basically the greatest wrestling event of the year. I couldn't make it to Easton, PA this year for the event, but that doesn't mean that The Atomic Elbow would miss the show. Referee Bryce Remsburg (Issue 2) kindly offered to stock a few copies at the merchandise table.

Friend of The Atomic Elbow Jesse Mack (@JMaq on Twitter) sent me this photograph, which simultaneously makes me very happy and very jealous.

Thanks, Bryce and Jesse. Oh, and you probably want one of those "Da Bryce is Right" t-shirts, too. You are right to want this. If you're not at King of Trios, you can order yours from Gimmick$ Wrestling tees.

Hope you jerks in Easton are having fun.

The Atomic Elbow: Issue Three

 It's done. The third issue of The Atomic Elbow is here. Hooray! This one's got some good stuff in it, including:



A live report from a recent NWA All-Stars show in Lexington Lebanon, VA by Shannon Smith,



An interview with Super Pro K.O.! creator Jarrett Williams,



An in-depth interview with the guys from The Old School Wrestling Podcast by Scott T. Holland,



An article about the time Rowdy Roddy Piper smashed a bottle on his head, written by Stewart Voegtlin and illustrated by Beaver, two of the guys from Chips & Beer Magazine (the best magazine),



A bunch of words about Smoky Mountain Wrestling's Volunteer Slam '92 Heavyweight Championship tournament, and a bunch of other awesome stuff including a comic by Tom McHenry, who either is, or should be, one of your favorite cartoonists.



Incredibly date-specific information follows: Today is Wednesday, August 29th. Tomorrow morning, I am having mouth surgery. They are going to shoot the inside of my mouth with lasers. I do not know how this will feel, but I assume "bad." Anyway, I have every intention of mailing the first orders of the third issue either tomorrow or Friday, but if I am in an incredible amount of pain, I will stay in my house watching America's Funniest Home Videos and Deadliest Warrior on Netflix. Monday is Labor Day, so the post offices will be closed. What I'm saying is that if you order tonight or tomorrow, I am going to try really hard to put this in the mail to you before the weekend, but I may not be able to because of mouth pain.

Everything is fine. Orders are shipping out within 24 hours of being received. I have a pile of envelopes and a bunch of stamps and I'm ready to send you some mail!

Now that you are armed with all of that information, go to the official Atomic Elbow online store and place your order!

Thanks!

Podcastin'!

Hey, guys... the editor of The Atomic Elbow (that's me, but talking about me in the 3rd person makes me feel all special) was recently a guest on the What A Maneuver Podcast.

We talked about wrestling and motorcycle enthusiasts and a bunch of other stuff.

You can listen to it by clicking here.

I hope you'll do that.

Hey, also, the third issue will be out very very soon. All the writing's done, I just have to collect some art and edit everything together.

Thanks, everyone!

So, I'm selling these posters...

I found a few old wrestling posters, and I thought it would be the kind of thing that some of the friends of The Atomic Elbow might be interested in having. There are three different designs advertising wrestling events in Gainesville, Georgia. As near as I can tell, they're from the early 70's, probably 1971 and 1972.




I have 2 of each of the three designs you see above. These posters are approximately 24" x 14" and they look really nice if you put 'em in a frame, even if it's a cheap frame you got on clearance at Michael's or Hobby Lobby or whatever. I am selling them for $15 each, which is a pretty good price for a 40 year old piece of cardboard, believe it or not. They're kind of expensive to ship, and I have to buy some special packaging materials for them so I have to charge $7 for shipping in the US. If you order more than one, I have to add a couple of bucks for each additional poster.

Shipping these posters flat means I have to pay "large package" rate which is, to be honest, way too damned much money to ship to the rest of North America, not to mention the rest of the planet. I even called my local post office to make sure the prices I was seeing on the US Postal Service website were correct ($23 to Canada!), and they confirmed that they were. I apologize to my international friends for the astronomical shipping charges associated with this item.

They are available now in the Atomic Elbow Online Store, but they are all listed as one item because I'm too cheap to pay for the Big Cartel package that lets you sell more than 5 items at a time. When you place your order, you will have to choose which poster you want from a drop-down menu. The options will be, from left to right in the photos in this post, "Medics/Von Brauners", "Little Eagle/Galento", and "Galento/Kozak".



I only have two of each poster right now. I may be able to get more, but I'm not sure. I'll let you know if that happens.

Thanks, everyone. Now, go buy some old rasslin' posters, okay?

So, I'm having a contest.

The Atomic Elbow is pleased to announce our first-ever contest. Enter to win these fabulous prizes!

 

Okay, look, let's drop the pretense. I have a bunch of wrestling stuff that I think some of you may want to have in your house more than I want it in mine. Which isn't to say that it's not fabulous, because I suppose it probably is, if that's the sort of thing you're into, but whatever. Man, I'm being a real downer about this. This stuff's actually pretty cool. Here is a bulleted list of what you get if you win:

• The 1990 Coliseum Video VHS release "Battle of the WWF Superstars." I'm pretty sure it plays. I haven't watched it in about 4 years, though.
• An Atomic Elbow embroidered patch. Nobody's buying 'em so I may as well give 'em away.
• A sealed pack of 12 WCW trading cards. These are from the 1991 series by Impel. There are about 70 different El Gigante cards in this series, so there's a good chance you'll get a lot of pictures of El Gigante. Everyone's into that, right?
• The November 1986 issue of Pro Wrestling Illustrated. This one is in pretty good shape and still has the Baby Doll pin-up in the center. I scanned the whole thing and put it online here, which probably violates all kinds of copyright laws, so don't tell anyone, okay?
• A 2-pack of World Wrestling Champion action figures. I bought these in a dollar store a few years ago. One of the guys kind of looks like Mistico and the other guy kind of looks like Blue Demon. The package is coming open on one edge, so it's not "mint" or whatever, but you'll probably want to open it and play with these guys right away anyway. It comes with 2 championship belts and 8 knee and/or elbow pads because what kid doesn't want a ton of knee and elbow pads that barely fit his poorly made action figures.
• A size XL Shawn Michaels t-shirt. I bought this at a thrift store, so it could have been owned by Shawn Michaels himself , although you know good and well that it was not.
• A WWE "Snack Down Mugs and Cocoa Set" including 2 ceramic WWE mugs and a .75 ounce pack of Snack Down Cocoa. The cocoa is only 10 years old, so it's probably still good, right? (To avoid being taken to court by your family because you're a dummy, I feel like I've gotta tell you not to consume this crap if you win it.) This prize was generously donated by our friends at Bizarro-Wuxtry in Athens, GA. It is the best store in the world. 
• An Old School Wrestling Podcast box set. This is the 2-disc DVD box set containing their first 50 episodes as well as bonus episodes unavailable elsewhere. This is good stuff. This box set was generously donated by the hosts of The Old School Wrestling Podcast.
• The winner will also receive a free copy of the (as yet unreleased, obviously) third issue of The Atomic Elbow. 
• Finally, when you win, will be contacted via email, and I'll make you a mix CD based on whatever kind of music you tell me you want to hear. If I think your music tastes are dumb, it'll just be a CD full of Roy Drusky songs.

So what do you have to do to win all of this amazing junk? It's pretty simple, really. I'm running out of pictures for the back cover. So basically this is an Atomic Elbow photography contest. Send me a photo of something wrestling-related that also has a copy of The Atomic Elbow in it. Remember Shawn Struck's awesome picture of him in the ring with Ultramantis Black? That's the kind of thing I'm looking for. But it doesn't have to necessarily just be that photo with a different wrestler. It could be you and your friend doing something stupid or you shoving a copy of The Atomic Elbow up Abe Lincoln's nose at the Lincoln Memorial (probably don't try that) or whatever. Just do something, make sure there's an Atomic Elbow patch, 'zine, or something with that dumb logo on it somewhere in the picture and email it to me at xgobbledygookerx@gmail.com.

"Legal" stuff: All entries become property of The Atomic Elbow and I can (and will) publish them on the internet and/or in future issues of my fanzine. Atomic Elbow contributors, the hosts of The Old School Wrestling Podcast, and that kid Keith who used to live in my neighborhood in high school are ineligible. Keith knows why.

This thing's purely subjective, by the way. I'm the final judge of which photograph is the "best" based on a set of standards that exist only in my stupid brain. My decision is final and you'll probably disagree with it. If you don't have a camera, you can draw something. If you can't draw you can make something else like one of those Blair Witch stick figures and mail it to me.

Now start entering my contest. I'm tired of waiting.

So, I have these patches...

I guess I wanted to sew a patch with the name of my 'zine on it on my sweatshirt under my spooky tough-guy Iron Maiden patch, so I had one made.



The problem with this idea was (and is) that the place I used to make these patches had a minimum order of 100. I didn't sew three patches on my sweatshirt as the photo above seems to indicate. I'm not that ridiculous. I haven't actually sewn any on there yet. But, I'm only going to use one. That means I have 99 patches that I probably won't use.

Do you want one?

They cost $3.00 each and I'm pretty sure I can mail them as a regular letter, so I'm only charging "letter" postage for them. I'm charging less if you order one with anything else. You can buy them from the Atomic Elbow Online Store. Look how good they'll look on your work shirt:



These patches say "The Atomic Elbow" in no uncertain terms, but they don't say what that is, so be prepared to answer that question when you wear these in public. Unless you look tough enough that you're basically unapproachable. Which could happen, because this thing has three skulls on it. Oh, they're four inches square, in case you're wondering how big they are.



So, yeah... go to the Atomic Elbow Online Store and order some patches for all the holes you've got in all of your clothes. They work really well for clothes without holes, too.



By the way, the Box Brown "Official Ratings" prints are almost sold out, so if you want one of those, now would be a good time to buy one. They're both still available in the Atomic Elbow Online Store, but now when you selct the print, you have to choose either "1983" or "1990" at checkout. Thanks, guys!

I am going to go on a trip.

I kind of think that nobody really pays a lot of attention to things on the internet unless there are pictures accompanying the text, but I don't have any specific pictures for what I'm about to type, so I'll just put up some photos I have laying around my hard drive.

Hey! So, I'm going to this comic book convention this weekend.

"But Robert," you are probably thinking, "what business does a wrestling fanzine even have at a comic book convention? Aren't you just diluting the focus of the event and eroding the intense concentration on comics that Heroes Con has done an excellent job cultivating over the past few decades?"

Yeah, probably. But here is the thing. I run a comic book convention of my own with my friend Patrick and that is the reason I am going and also both issues of The Atomic Elbow have work by comics artists in them so, you know, whatever, imaginary dude...

So, while the focus of my presence at this event (which is a ridiculously awesome convention, by the way and I have an amazing amount of fun every time I go) will be on promoting FLUKE and the stuff FLUKE does, I will definitely have everything in the Atomic Elbow Online Store with me as well. And maybe some stuff that isn't in the online store will be for sale, too. You never know. So, if you're going to be at Heroes Con, please stop by FLUKE's tables in the "Indie Island" area. We'll be at tables AA-541 and AA-542, if that means anything to you.

So, when I go to the post office, I usually go during the day. It's not a long walk to the post office from the place where I work, but it gets hot and humid really fast in Georgia, so I usually go pretty early in the day. The reason I am telling you about this is that I usually ship all the online orders I received the previous day the next day when I take this walk. But I'm leaving super early Friday morning*, so I won't be able to go to the post office Friday. Any order I receive today will ship tomorrow, but after tomorrow (June 21st) I won't be shipping online orders again until Tuesday the 26th. So if you're reading this on Wednesday and you want to order something from me, maybe you should go do that now. No pressure.

*The reason I'm leaving so early Friday is because I have to go pick up the following awesome dudes who are also going to Heroes Con. Click on their names, visit their websites and buy lots of their things.
The aforementioned Patrick Dean.
Drew Weing.
Joey Weiser.
David Mack.

See you guys in Charlotte, maybe...

Another Box Brown print for you!

I know what you're probably thinking. You are probably thinking that the "Official Ratings 1990" print that I showed you in a previous post (the post before the one about Calling Spots) is pretty cool and all but you're the type of lady or man who would appreciate something a little older-school (old school-er? I don't know). Like, oh, I don't know, maybe a nice print of the "Official Ratings 1983" drawing by Box Brown from the inside front cover of The Atomic Elbow issue 2.

Well, guess what?



Would you just look at that?

Box Brown sent me a few of these in the mail. They arrived today. They are the same size as the "...1990" print detailed in the last picture. The light was pretty bad when I got home, so I did not take as many photos of them for this website, but they are just as awesome, I can assure you.

They are still only $18 ($15 for the print and $3 for shipping. It's going to cost a little more if you're outside the USA.) and are available now in the Official Atomic Elbow Online Store!

What are you waiting for? Order yours today!

How British am I?

Oh, hey guys. What's up? You know how great The Atomic Elbow is? I mean, it's pretty great, right? Let's all take a little bit of time and think about how great it is.

Okay, are you done? Good. Now, what if I told you that there's another wrestling fanzine you can read? I hope you have answered that question, because I am about to tell you exactly that. Some British wrestling fans got together and made a 'zine called Calling Spots.



Now, I know what you're probably thinking. You're probably thinking about how much you would like to read this wrestling fanzine but you don't want to pay international shipping. Well guess what? You don't have to. That's because Calling Spots and The Atomic Elbow each have copies of the other fanzine for sale in our own countries!



So, if you want to read Calling Spots and you're in the USA, you can order a copy from our BRAND NEW ONLINE STORE for only $3.50 postage paid.

And if you're in the United Kingdom and you want to read The Atomic Elbow, you can order from Calling Spots. Here is the link to the Calling Spots website where they tell you how to order The Atomic Elbow in the UK.

HOORAY FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE! Now get to orderin'! We only got 10 copies of Calling Spots and a couple are already gone.

Did we mention OUR BRAND-NEW ONLINE STORE? We did? Okay. Why am I talking about myself in the plural? There's no "we". I'm still just one dude. Buy my wrestling stuff, okay? Thanks.

Oh, and I'm sorry for all that bragging about how "great" my 'zine is at the start of this. I don't know what got into me.

One more thing: did you get the reference in the title of this post? it is a reference to a character from the Superego podcast. You should be listening to this, because it is hilarious.

You need something to hang on your wall!

You guys already have the second issue of The Atomic Elbow by now, right? Have you seen the drawings by Box Brown on the inside covers? Those things are great, right? Right! But how can you hang them on your wall without ripping up your 'zine? Until now the only way to do this was to buy two copies of the issue. But wait. Now, you don't have to do that anymore. Unless you want to. I won't complain. But look at this!
Box Brown went and made some prints of his Official Ratings 1990 drawing. They look awesome. And guess what? You can buy one if you want to! They cost $15 each.

Now, here's the thing... they aren't really cheap to ship because they have to be shipped flat and the post office charges more for this. I'm totally fine with this because I love the U.S. Postal Service. Really. Did you know that the men who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America thought of the Postal Service before they thought of freedom of speech? It is true! Congress is given power to create and administer the Postal Service in Article I. Freedom of speech didn't even make it into the main thing. It's all the way in the back in one of the amendments. That is how important the Post Office is. Wait... what was I talking about?

Oh, yeah, look... it's gonna cost $3 to ship this thing to you if you live in America. If you live in another country, please email me before you order so we can figure out shipping. I promise to keep it as cheap as the post office will allow.

Still, $18 for a print this awesome is really great. You can't get real live actual art like this much cheaper. These things are on heavy paper and they're about 11 x 14 inches. (If you live in any country that isn't the U.S., Myanmar or Liberia, that's about 28cm x 36cm). See?


So, yeah. These things are awesome, is basically the point I'm trying to make here. So if you've got $18*, you should buy one, maybe. Oh, and another thing...

Issues 1 and 2 are both back in print and ready to be ordered again. Tell all your friends! Thanks!

*Edit: Guys, I know that the shipping cost has changed twice in the past 14 hours, but that is because I am really bad at using the USPS online shipping calculator. I just got back from the Post Office and it only cost me $3 to ship this thing. The money has been refunded to everyone who has ordered so far. I am sorry that I am so bad at technology.

We did it!

THE FIRST PRINTING OF THE ATOMIC ELBOW NUMBER 2 IS SOLD OUT. Reprints of both issues back in stock later this week. Thanks everyone.

The Atomic Elbow #2 Progress Report

Happy Morrissey's Birthday everyone. As a special present for you, here is The Atomic Elbow issue two. That's right. Let me be clear about this: The second issue of The Atomic Elbow is available right now. This isn't a pre-order. They're done. They're sitting in a box right over there. You can't see this, but I'm pointing to the box right now. Trust me.

So, yeah... go right ahead and order a copy or two. Do it. Nobody's stopping you. The ordering information is right over there on the right side of this page. I'm sitting here with some 'zines and stamps and some envelopes and I'm ready to send you some mail.

This issue's a little bigger than the first issue and I know I'm probably biased, but I think it's pretty good. It's got an article about Kevin Sullivan and Nasty Savage by RagnaR of Squared Circle Pit, an interview with referee Bryce Remsburg, a report on the recent Chikara / Ring of Honor "Synergy" shows by The Black Cat of The Old School Wrestling Podcast, a couple of excellent drawings by Box Brown, and a twelve thousand word essay about Clash of the Champions XVII.

But that's not all! The first 100 copies come with a button of Bryce Remsburg's face! Now that's a valuable premium!

All of this for only five dollars postage paid? YES! And you just know I'm gonna throw in some posters and other junk, because that's how we do things over here at Second Period Industries. Now that's a bargain! So what are you waiting for? Get logged into Paypal now and get your copies today! Please note: because there is more than one issue now, please send me a note with your payment telling me what issue to send you. I would assume that most orders will be for the second issue, but who knows anything in this crazy world anymore? ORDER NOW!!!