Wuvable Oaf

Thanks to readers of this blog, I have come to realize that for many (maybe even most) gay and bi men, the wrestling fetish is coupled with a fetish for cosplay and comic books. Comics are not a big thing for me. Some of the imagery of superheroes, especially in combat with criminal masterminds, is a turn-on. As a kid I liked cartoons. In fact, my first erotic fixation was Mighty Mouse, soon followed by Popeye, then Race Bannon on Jonny Quest. The only comic books I read devotedly were Mad Magazine and Classics Illustrated. From the '80s to today I have read through perhaps only a dozen comic books or graphic novels. Some of these I've liked quite a lot, but none as much as Ed Luce's Wuvable Oaf, collected and published last year in hardcover by Fantagraphics.

If you're unfamiliar with Oaf, here is Amazon's product description:

Wuvable Oaf is the first-ever collection of the acclaimed self-published comic book series by cartoonist Ed Luce. Oaf is a large, hirsute, scary-looking ex-wrestler who lives in San Francisco with his adorable kitties and listens to a lot of Morrissey. The book follows Oaf ’s search for love in the big city, especially his pursuit of Eiffel, the lead singer of the black metal/queercore/ progressive disco grindcore band Ejaculoid. Luce weaves between the friends, associates, enemies, ex-lovers and pasts of both men into the story of their courtship. A romantic comedy at its core, Wuvable Oaf recalls elements of comics as diverse as Scott Pilgrim, Love and Rockets, and Archie, set against the background of San Francisco’s queer community and music scene.

The following scenes are taken from VICE, a print and online magazine published in Montreal since 1994, to which Luce contributes a column called Wuvable Oaf Battlezone, focusing on Oaf's heel gimmick Goteblud, a hoofed personification of evil whose horns spurt blood. I'm absolutely stuck on Luce and Oaf and Goteblud. I can't get enough of the homoerotic wrestling scenes, which Luce promises will comprise a greater share of Oaf's storyline in the future. A second book is due out sometime this year.