2 From Clay Jones

Save Boca by Clay Jones

Boca Raton is under threat of overdevelopment Read on Substack

This cartoon was drawn for The Boca Raton Tribune. A group named Save Boca is trying to save the city from overdevelopment…and MAGA “leadership.”

The Boca Raton Tribune is a client of my syndication, and now they want to commission occasional cartoons from me on local issues. They choose the subjects, and I write and draw them. This is our second, with the first being in early July.

The cranes and buildings under construction were the editor’s suggestion. One thing I love about local cartoons is that you can put in local stuff residents will recognize. I do that with a lot of my local cartoons for the FXBG Advance, which is easier for me because I live here. That’s not the case with Boca Rotan, so it’s very helpful when the editor can mention local stuff. (snip)

Heavenly Hogan by Clay Jones

What’cha gonna do when reality runs wild on you? Read on Substack

I do not like to draw obit cartoons. I especially don’t like them featuring the Pearly Gates. I bet when editors receive an obit cartoon from me, they get slightly excited because I don’t normally do these things. And I bet that excitement drops real quick after they read the cartoon, because even when I do an obit cartoon, it’s not like other cartoonists’ obit cartoons. It’s not often I give you a Betty White.

Terry Bollea died today at 71. Bollea was Hulk Hogan. Hogan, like Ozzy, wasn’t someone who had a huge impact on me, like Freddy Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Jeff MacNeely, Prince, David Bowie, John Lennon, George Harrison, or Tom Petty. Notice that they’re mostly musicians. Even at the age of 11, Elvis’ death hit me. But sometimes I will draw an obit cartoon for someone just because of how iconic they were.

Ozzy was iconic. Everyone knew who he was, even if they couldn’t name a song of his. His reality show helped a lot with that. Terry Bollea was iconic, too, in that you don’t have to watch professional wrestling to know who Hulk Hogan is. If there is a Mount Rushmore for wrestlers, many fans would put Hogan in George Washington’s spot.

Hogan made wrestling. When the then-WWF (World Wrestling Federation) went national (wrestling used to be territorial), owner Vince McMahon (who is now in deep trouble for sexual assault) needed a babyface (good guy) hero to be the face of the company. And it worked, Hulkamania ran wild across the nation, as Hulk Hogan defended the World Title year after year against bigger and badder bad guys. One problem was that there weren’t that many bad guys physically larger than Hulk Hogan. There was only one Andre the Giant, and most big guys couldn’t wrestle, even enough to match Hogan’s three-move set. They once hired actor Tommy Lister (Deebo from the Friday movies) to have a feud with Hogan, because Lister was huge and had played the hell (bad guy) in a horrible film with Hogan. I didn’t have to see it to know it was horrible. One problem with hiring an actor to wrestle is that actors are not wrestlers. This makes for bad matches.

At Wrestlemania 2, Hulk faced off against King Kong Bundy, who was paid $50,000 for the match, which was half of what Hogan made for the event. Bundy wasn’t mad. He was happy because wrestlers didn’t usually make those kinds of paydays. Hogan was such a star that wrestlers made more money working with/against him. McMahon would sign new guys, not always by promising them titles (he often lied), but with runs with Hogan. This is an estimation, but a wrestler who usually made $1,000 a week could make $10,000 to $50,000 a week if he was working with Hogan. This information comes from wrestlers, but keep in mind that wrestlers are often liars.

Hogan was the hero. He would make his entrance to the song Real American (it’s catchy and annoying) while waving an American flag. He’d tell the kids to “say your prayers and eat your vitamins.” Hogan, despite never losing and being the champ, was always the underdog. Most of the match consisted of Hogan getting his ass kicked, until he hulked up. The villain’s punches would suddenly become ineffective, Hogan would turn around with an angry expression, take a few more punches, then stand straight up and point his finger at the bad guy, like, “YOU!” Then he’d start punching, whip the bad guy off the rope, perform a bodyslam, whip himself off the ropes, do a legdrop on his opponent, and then it was 1, 2, 3 for the pin, and the fans would go crazy. Find the Hogan/Andre match, and you’ll see. I was shocked to look this up to discover it lasted as long as 12 minutes. I’m trying to remember what they did in that match to make it last so long. It’s very slow. It wasn’t technical wrestling, and Hogan did the same routine for every match, but it was storytelling in the ring. Hulk always won….usually.

Hogan was a real-life cartoon.  (snip; yes, there is MORE)