From his comic book illustrations for DC Comics‘ House of Mystery and IDW Publishing‘s Doctor Who to his design work for Syfy and WWE, Josh Adams is no stranger to to the fantastical realms of superheroes, time traveling and pro wrestling. This Christmas, Adams received an early present when he was asked to illustrate Mick Foley‘s latest children’s book, A Most Mizerable Christmas. Having previously drawn the likes of Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger and Christopher Daniels, you might think that illustrating a book featuring The Miz, CM Punk, Wade Barrett, Sheamus and other WWE superstars and divas would be a simple task. But this book offered a unique challenge in that Adams was creating these wrestlers as children, not in their current incarnations. Being a WWE fan, Adams was definitely up for the challenge and has helped create a new Christmas tale for wrestling fans of all ages. Here, Adams takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the challenges A Most Mizerable Christmas presented and how he was able to effectively execute his artistic finishing maneuvers.
Though you are no stranger to the wrestling world, A Most Mizerable Christmas is your first collaboration with Mick Foley. How did this collaboration come about and how did the process of illustrating Foley’s story work?
This is, indeed, our first collaboration. I wasn’t actually the first artist on the book. It wasn’t until July that I was brought onto the project after difficulty finding the right artist for a project. Jill Thompson recommended me. It was a weird encounter. Jill and I were both guests at Comic-Con International and our tables were down the aisle from each other. Jill came up to my table with a cell phone and asked me what my schedule was like. At first I thought she meant my schedule at the con, but then I realized she meant for an actual gig. I had just finished doing an issue of Doctor Who so I was free. Jill handed me her cell phone and on the other line was Mick Foley. Mick told me he had a lot of work and not a lot of time and wanted to know if I could handle the work. I had to scour the convention floor to find a watercolor set to do samples. It was a MacGyver moment if I ever had one, but that night I was able to finish some samples, email them to Mick, and just three weeks later I was turning in the final pages of A Most Mizerable Christmas. By the time I was brought on to the project there really were only three weeks till the deadline and a lot of art to do, so for my sake everything was already scripted, along with descriptions of what images should correspond with the text. There wasn’t a lot of time for Mick and I to go back and forth with different ideas, but thankfully after I finished a few pages of art, everyone felt we were in step with each other’s expectations.
Drawing WWE wrestlers is nothing new for, you but I believe A Most Mizerable Christmas is the first time you’ve drawn child versions of them. How did that compare to the previous wrestler illustrations you’ve done? How does drawing wrestlers compare to the superhero and fantasy stuff you do?
WWE Champion CM Punk is apparently a fan of "A Most Mizerable Christmas" artist Josh Adams. Photo by Saori Tsujimoto.
This is certainly the first time I have drawn child versions of professional wrestlers. Outside of children’s book illustration, there aren’t many opportunities that call for that kind of thing. The difficulty with doing the kid versions is that it’s not like drawing real kids. They’re cartoons, all with bubble heads and wearing kid clothes. One of the toughest was CM Punk. Here’s a guy who has piercings, facial hair and tattoos and I can’t illustrate any of them in this book. Drawing the wrestlers as you see them in reality is much easier for me and I’ve had a lot of experience with that. The real fun thing for me is that these men and women are like comic book characters and as a professional and as a fan I can appreciate the relationship that exists between the two. I’ve also found that many wrestlers are comic book fans, as well. My first wrestling-related job was illustrating a comic book for Rob Van Dam and it only grew from there, doing illustrations for Christopher Daniels, Stevie Richards, Daffney, storyboarding those artsy commercials that aired on Syfy for ECW and designing the print ads for SmackDown. My career has become quite inadvertently associated with wrestling, mainly because of my love for wrestling. There was actually one week last year where I was interviewed for Impact Wrestling one day and then the next day bagged by Cody Rhodes on WWE.com.
In much the same way that WWE allows us to escape to a comic book-like reality, Christmas is a magical time of year for most people. What attracted you to doing a Christmas book featuring WWE stars?
Much like a professional wrestler evolves his character over time to keep the product from getting stale, I always like to try different things and change directions when the opportunity presents itself. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say. When this opportunity presented itself, I had never done anything remotely like it and the style of work I was doing at the time was as photorealistic as you could get. So the transition was drastic. It was even the first time I did a job using watercolor! But I am comfortable when there is a lot of pressure to make the deadline under crazy circumstances. I’ve been to a few signings with Mick and we usually make our way through 300-plus books. The truly amazing and humbling thing is that people are buying this book as a Christmas gift for a child or a loved one. In the end, regardless of the content, how famous the author is, the experience doing the work, nothing affected me more than the fact that people happily paid money without the bat of an eyelash to buy the book as a holiday gift for someone. A friend of mine who is a school teacher bought copies for all the teachers he works with to read to their class. That means a lot to me.
This book is a morality tale that uses WWE personas to illustrate a positive message. But as is often the case with WWE, many of these characters (The Miz and CM Punk in particular) have had some changes in attitude since this book came out. Do you think The Miz may have learned a lesson from being the antagonist in this book? Do you think CM Punk should maybe take a second look at the book to remember the example his character set?
I’d have loved to have seen CM Punk resemble the character in our book on television, but business is business and as much as we fans love to grumble at the TV when we think we could do it better, those guys and girls in the WWE put together an amazing product that is unmatchable these days. Having been backstage at their shows and up to their offices in Stamford, I have seen such a well-oiled machine that makes it really shine at producing live entertainment every week that is both exciting and family friendly. It was cool to see Miz start to resemble the change that we put in the book, though.
In the acknowledgements section of the book, you thank Jerry Lawler, who is an incredible artist in addition to being a wrestler, and Jill Thompson, who has worked with Foley previously. How much would you say these two artists inspired you and how did their art influence the illustrations you did for this book?
"A Most Mizerable Christmas" artist Josh Adams also illustrates the "Doctor Who" comic book. Photo by Patrick Robert.
I’ve known Jerry Lawler for a number of years and he is one of the most amazing people you could have the chance to meet. He’s got such a quick mind. Listening to him on commentary is evidence of that, but then you see his illustrations. I’m a guy who has devoted his life to illustration, and he is a professional wrestler and commentator with a very busy schedule who somehow manages to find time to create beautiful work. It’s like if I decided to hop in the ring one day and work a 40-minute main event-style match on pay-per-view. Jerry just has that creative and ambitious edge that makes him a threat in anything he tries. All the while he is one of the sweetest and most humble guys you could ever meet. Jill Thompson is one of the coolest artists I know. She has a versatility about her work that allows her to traverse genre and tone with ease, and her skills with watercolor are to die for. She very much mentored me through the early stages of this book and helped me find the style for the characters. It couldn’t have been done without her guidance and obviously I never would have had the opportunity if she hadn’t believed I was able to handle it.
Now that this book is out, what other projects do you have out or coming out in the near future?
I have been working on a few issues of Doctor Who for IDW Publishing, which will be out in January and February. Doctor Who is a great series for families. I’ve got a graphic novel that I’m working on and a webcomic series in the works as well, which are both for older audiences. But I have been excited about any opportunity to do more wrestling-related work, as well as more children’s book work.