NYCC 2024: Talking Wresting And Comics With ‘Hard Style Juice’ Writer Clay McCormack

While the worlds of comic books and professional wrestling have many commonalities, the two rarely meet in a meaningful way. Writer Clay McCormack aims to change that with his upcoming Comixology series Hard Style Juice. The five-issue series is a murder mystery with wrestling at its core. Comicon.com sat down with McCormack at New York Comic Con to discuss the Hard Style Juice as well how life is like wrestling.

Tom Smithyman: Why are you so excited for Hard Style Juice?

Clay McCormack: It’s about a professional wresting family who runs a small promotion. The father is the head booker. The daughter who helps out but has aspirations beyond just wresting. And the son, who is the superstar in waiting. Unfortunately, a tragedy befalls the family and the son dies. So the daughter has to decide whether she wants to go on with her life or if she wants to help the family. And, of course, she’s going to help her family.

Part of that involves taking her brother’s place in the ring. It becomes a way for her to work through her grief, but also, she begins to think that maybe her brother was murdered. So she’s using the things she’s learned in the ring to track down who might be responsible for her brother’s death.

Smithyman: You’re obviously a huge wresting fan. What experiences did you draw from for this series?

McCormack: I was a big wresting fan when I was younger. And then as we all kinda do, I fell out. You know, you grow up. But eventually you end up coming back. And when I came back to it, it was the right time as the independent wresting scene really started to blossom. A lot of those guys are the big names at the big companies now.

As I started going to these smaller wresting shows, I started to see the similarities between the life of a wrestler and the life of a comic book creator. It’s the same kind of thing. You’re traveling around the country – sometimes the world. You’re doing these small shows. Every wrestling event is kind of like a little convention. And so it got me into wanting to do a story that was set in this world.

Wrestling and comics being together isn’t anything new. But in comics, a lot of times wrestling is just used as a framing device. But I really wanted to do a story that was about wrestling as much as it was about whatever genre we decided to go with.

Smithyman: You mentioned that your protagonist takes the lessons she learned in the ring and applies them to the murder investigation. What do you think wrestling can teach us about life?

McCormack: It’s very easy to view things as good guy vs. bad guy. But unfortunately, you begin to learn that it’s not that easy. There’s a bit of a monologue in one of the issues where a character tries to break that down to our main character. He says: “Wrestling fans think they know everything. Their favorite wrestler is the greatest hero in the world. Then right when they think they know everything, that’s when the hero hits his friend with a steel chair. And then they realize they don’t know anything”

Smithyman: If the similarities between wrestling and comics are so tight, why haven’t there been more stories where wrestling plays an integral role?

McCormack: That’s a good question. The thing that drew me to wrestling when I was a kid was that it was like watching a comic book. The wrestler that really got me was the Ultimate Warrior, who was the closest thing to a comic book superhero that I could see.

It’s like video game movies. A lot of them don’t do well because it’s like: “I can play the game. Why do I need to see it in a boring format like this?” I wanted to bridge that gap by taking advantage of the comic book medium, as much as it is taking advantage of the wrestling medium.

Smithyman: I imagine the artwork by Ricardo Lopez Ortiz has to be amazing to catch readers’ attention.

McCormack: Ricardo’s artwork is over the top with the action and doing stuff in our book that you just can’t do in real life. And Heather Moore, our colorist, just absolutely killed it. I think we put a really nice package together.

Smithyman: What’s the collaboration like between you and Ricardo?

McCormack: We’ve been friends for a long time, and we were both into wrestling. We had wanted to work together on something. He did a sketchbook a handful of years ago. And he had done this cover for the sketchbook of this female kind of death match luchador. And as soon as I saw it, the entire story jumped into my head.

I texted him immediately asking where it was from. And he said it was just a drawing. So I pitched him the idea, and he’s like: “Yeah, that sounds great.”

Working together has been really good. I’m an artist as well as a writer. So I try to write my scripts the way I would want to get them, which allows him a lot of latitude to do his own thing. If there’s a specific thing I want, I’ll let him know. But other times, I’ll just say that we need a page full of wrestling. Go crazy! And he does.

Smithyman: What else are you working on beyond this project?

McCormack: Right now I can’t talk about anything that I’m working on. But I have a book out that I wrote and illustrated called Bloody Hell, which is about five mystically powered Vikings who have been imprisoned for 1000 years. And they are set loose when their prison is destroyed by an artillery shell during World War I.

I was also recently the co-writer on Generation Joker from DC Comics. And I’ve been working with Sean Murphy on the Batman: White Knight stuff for a number of years.

Smithyman: Obvious closing question: Who is your favorite wrestler and why?

McCormack: When I was a kid, it was the Ultimate Warrior. I still have a soft spot for him for nostalgic reasons.

Currently, I’m a huge Becky Lynch fan. I was watching her since she debuted and to see her rise into what she’s become is kinda amazing.

It’s kinda cliché, but it’s gotta be Bret Hart. Although … There’s so many to choose from. I’m very indecisive. I’m always going to be here for Rowdy Roddy Piper!

Smithyman: OK, we’ll allow you to have more than one. Best of luck with Hard Style Juice.