Interview with Frank Gibson for Muscle Temple

Salutations kith and welcome Mister Frank Gibson! I am Mr. Forte, as you know your host for the event presented before you. It's always a pleasure to have fellow wanderers of the weird world of wresting and writing. As any writer you know the rules for these bouts of the mind as we wrestle our thoughts and settle this skirmish and consultation. Though before we draw our verbal sabers and draw lines in the sand, let's reveal some ghosts of the past.

You might know Mr. Gibson and his Fiancée Ms. Becky Dreistadt from their Webcomic Tiny Kitten Teeth as I did when I followed their adventures straight to MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art), where we all met for the first time. This was back when they were traveling from New Zealand to the States, it was an impressive journey for a small press convention. From this point on both members of this team have been a welcomed and friendly face for all conventions. Though you might know their work best from the comic and cartoon Bee & PuppyCat from Cartoon Hangover. Today we'll be talking about our passion for wrestling, wrestlers, and the anthology comic that's being printed titled Muscle Temple. Before we truly start I want to give a statement, thank you. Thank you for having this conversation with me today and for creating amazing forms of art through words and speech. I'm indebted to your stimulation of art, comics, and animation, again thank you for this interview.




Q: What is Muscle Temple about?
A: This is a book about our love of professional wrestling and everything it encompasses. We genuinely love the wrestlers, but we also celebrate its ridiculousness, pageantry, sordid history. It's going to be a really fun anthology with a lot of varied content that I'm really excited about.

Frank Gibson is welcomed in the only fashion that any interview/wresting match should start.

In a dark room against a robot (Gom), a Cyborg (Tea Steeping), and a Scienectist (Professor Steeping).

As always I'll be recording and conversing from my recorder (Mister Forte).

Q: What inspired you to collect these amazing artists and writers?
A: They're all my friends! Pretty much everyone in the book watches wrestling at my house regularly. We were all brought together by a collective love of the sport, some of us were lapsed fans, others are brand new, but we love going to indie shows together and watching pay-per-views and occasionally staying up all night to watch New Japan.


Q: Do you enjoy WWF or WCW more?
A: WWF is what brought me in but WCW was my passion. I loved the cruiserweights, the mid-card. I was all about the Chris Jerichos, Perry Saturns, and Dean Malenkos. I loved Super King and El Dandy and Super Calo! This was the stuff that kept the show interesting for me. The main event had the big long stories, but I loved the small stuff. WCW just did it better a lot of the time.


Q: What do you like better WWE or TNA?
A: When TNA first fired up I was super excited. I even saw WWA (a TNA affiliate) live in New Zealand right around the time TNA was doing its weekly pay per views. But I'm a WWE guy now, the roster top to bottom is just fantastic at this point.

As any keen machine there needs maintenance and upkeep to have it functioning at top potential.

Good Teamwork is key to a great interview, also to tag-team championships.

Q: What took you into Wrestling? What got you into that world and stories?
A: When I was 12 people were just yelling about Stone Cold and The Rock, I got caught up in the enthusiasm, but my interest was kept by everything surrounding it. I was probably one of the last generation of tape traders, a 14 year old with two VHSs mailing truly ancient ECW hardcore TV tapes, from New Zealand.


Q: Have you ever dabbled in Lucha Libre (Masked Wrestling)?
A: I've always dug Lucha, I've attended a few Lucha Underground shows. There's some really scary La Parka vs Dr. Wagner Jr. matches that showcase the not-so-flippy side of Mexican wrestling, though I love that too.


Q: What's changed from past work to this style of writing?
A: Action oriented writing has been grabbing me slowly over the last couple of years starting with Capture Creatures. The story I'm doing with Zach (Marcus), tentatively titled Muscle Temple High, is going to be pure action. I'm excited to make it.


Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for other artists hoping to start collaborations?
A: Just be straight up with your expectations. It's 100% communication.


If you'd like to see more from
Frank Gibson, here's a mess of links
On his adventures through Comics & Animation
Home Page
Muscle Temple
Azure Messanger Bird
Capture Creatures
Tiny Kitten Teeth
DeviantArt Page
Tumbr
Bee & PuppyCat - Penman for the Animation