Michel Mulipola
Michel Mulipola at ComicFest 2019
Born1981
Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation(s)Comic artist
Professional wrestler
Websitewww.bloodysamoan.com

Michel Mulipola (born 1981) is a comic book artist and trained professional wrestler of Samoan descent who lives in South Auckland, New Zealand.[1][2][3] He is more commonly known by his artist pseudonym Bloody Samoan[4] or as his supervillain pro-wrestling character Liger.[5] For his comic artist work Mulipola was awarded the Gibson Award for Best New Zealand Comic Book Artist (2006), Winner of V Energy Drinks Pimp My Life competition (2010) and awarded Storylines Notable Book Award for the book Samoan Heroes with author David Riley (2016). He has also provided illustrations consistently over the years for Lift Education, Upper Deck, BOOM! Studios and Reading Warriors.

Mulipola is an active member of the Impact Pro Wrestling community, participating in the 2016 Heavy-Weight New Zealand championship with WWE legend Tonga Fifita / King Haku to become New Zealand's Tag Team champions (2016).[5][6] Over the years he has and continues to serve his wider community through comic and illustration workshops[7] for interested youth in across the country as well as school visits with Duffy Books In Homes.[8] Mulipola is currently working on his popular US pro wrestling graphic novel series Headlocked with long-time collaborator and author Micheal Kingston. Currently, Mulipola is contracted by Walt Disney Animation Studios as a Story Artist and Cultural Consultant for an upcoming project.[9]

Early life

Mulipola is a New Zealand born Samoan raised in Māngere, South Auckland.[10] His Samoan heritage traces back to the villages of Lefaga and Vaimoso,[10] with the Mulipola name hailing from Manono. He has strong familial ties to the Mau Movement with his Great-Grandfather Mata'utia Karauna Solomona having been the secretary for the Mau Movement as well as a musician.[5] Born into a strong musical family, he gravitated more toward visual art from an age as young as four years old.[5] At five years old, he discovered his uncle's collection of classic superhero comic books, which is the touchstone for Mulipola's art today.[3] A few years later, he would develop the same affinity for Professional Wrestling through watching the WWE and WCW as a child. His love of superhero comic book characters and storytelling within comics found its physical reality in Professional Wrestling.[3] He connected the similarities between comic book storytelling and professional wrestling – the bold colours, larger than life characters, explosive moments – very quickly with passion.[3]

Throughout his teen years Mulipola attended Onehunga High School.[11] He realised as his love for the comic book artform grew as well as his artistic skill that there was no place in New Zealand at the time that taught the skills required to become a professional comic book artist.[12] He taught himself and has refined and deepened his craft independently since.[12]

Biography

Mulipola, being a self-trained artist, has had a rich and unique artistic journey. His love for comics and the art form led him to work at and help establish Arkham City Comics in Onehunga where he met the owner and longtime friend Jeremy Bishop.[13] In 2004 after Bishop saw the need to display and publish these pieces of original comic art people would share with him in the store.[13] Bishop developed Dealer Man Comics to publish, display and sell local art in his comic book store.[14] Bishop created an anthology comic strip series called New Ground[14] to house all of this local art. Mulipola was among the artists who were featured in the 2004 publication of the anthology. This was Mulipola's first published comic work.[4]

Mulipola continued to create comics for this anthology from 2004 to 2008.[4] During that time he won The Gibson Award for Best New Zealand Comic Book Artist 2006.[3] The following year Mulipola would continue to create comics strips and be an invited guest artist for a comic Knuckles the Malevolent Nun: She Might Get Rather Crude#1 written by Cornelius Stone.[15] He also was a storyboard artist for advertisements with prominent New Zealand brands Memphis Meltdown[16] and Waikato Draught Beer during this time.[4]

A hearty fan of Professional Wrestling already, Mulipola illustrated a comic strip in 2008 for Impact Pro Wrestling.[4] Driven by his longtime love of the sport and longtime love of comics he illustrated himself as a Professional Wrestler and named his persona "Kid Liger".[17] Inspired by this he happened to see that the Pro-Wrestling organisation had tryouts coming up.[17] Mulipola entered himself in having no previous experience. He discovered a talent for the sport and defined his character as a villain, dropping the "Kid" from his name.[17]

Mulipola has been wrestling as the Villainous Liger with Impact Pro Wrestling in Auckland for 18 years and continues to this day.[4] In 2016 he participated in the Heavy Weight New Zealand Championship through Impact Pro Wrestling, partnering with King Haku to become New Zealand's Pro-Wrestling Tag-Team Heavy-Weight Champions.[18] Mulipola also designed the Heavy-Weight Championship Winners' belt for this event.[4]

Winner of the V Energy Drink Pimp My Life Competition and the $10,000 reward. An already-established comic artist Mulipola used his prize money to take him and a friend to San Diego Comic-Con.[19] He took a portfolio of his work to engage and share with the international community of comic book artists at the convention.[19] There, he was given positive affirmations on his work by the professionals at the DC Comics Booth as well as made valuable connections with the WWE.[19]

There he introduced himself to Micheal Kingston, the author of Headlocked who was impressed with Mulipola's artistic skill as well as his deep respect and first-hand experience in Pro-Wrestling.[19] They began collaborating on Headlocked in 2010 and continue to release issues of the comic book to this day.[4] They have garnered praise from WWE and TNR; Legends including Donovan Dijak, Trent Seven, Ken Anderson, The Addiction, Gangrel, MVP, Cody Rhodes, Hurricane, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Mick Foley, Ric Flair and many others have contributed art or stories to the Headlocked comic book series.[20]

In 2017 Mulipola was commissioned by WWE through BOOM! Studios to illustrate their 13th issue of a comic book series focusing on different WWE legends.[21] The 13th issue being centred around Samoa Joe. A Samoan comic book artist and pro-wrestler illustrating the iconic Samoan Pro-Wrestler.[21]

Mulipola also lent his talents to Pasifika clothing brands. In collaborations with Overstayer Clothing, Juggernaut Clothing (2008) and Nesian Clothing (2012.)[4]

Through his art, Mulipola has been a consistent illustrator for the WWE (2017–2019) and Marvel studios (2017–2021) illustrating trading cards, comics, and special edition stories.[4][22] He has done various works of promotional art, ad campaigns, and poster art for advertisement, film production, established media, and gaming companies including Colenso BBD (2007), SKY TV (2015), SmokeFree RockQuest (2019), BMC Productions (2020), 2K Games ANZ (2020) and Clemenger BBDO (2021).[4]

Mulipola is an active member of his community and contributes to New Zealand's education system through illustrating empowering and educational books for the country's large and marganlised Pasifika community.[23] His books celebrate and educate the youth about the Pacific, these are accessible in schools across the country.[23] These are published through Reading Warrior (2015–2018) and Lift Education (2015–2021). Titles of these books include Samoan Heroes, Tongan Heroes, Cook Island Heroes, Once a Panther, Fanene Peter Maivia: Son of Samoa and many more.[23][4] In 2020 he collaborated with Nafanuatele Lafitaga Mafaufau and her course Nafanua Communications and Culture Classes to create and publish the first ever comic series entirely in Gagana Samoa, "O le Aiga".[24][4][25]

Mulipola is a role model for the Duffy Books in Homes Charitable Foundation.[8] He has been involved with them since 2015 to the present day.[4] Visiting schools and inspiring and educating our younger generations with his expertise, experience, and generous spirit.[8]

In 2020 Mulipola was a recipient of Tautai Pacific Arts Trust FALE-ship home residency.[10]

Mulipola is currently contracted by Walt Disney Animation Studios as a storyboard artist and cultural consultant on an upcoming project.[9]

Awards and residencies

  • 2006 – Gibson Award for Best New Zealand Comic Book Artist
  • 2010 – Winner of V Energy Drink's Pimp My Life Competition
  • 2011 – Top 25 finalists for the Stan Lee Foundation 'Create a Superhero' competition
  • 2013 – Grand Finalist for Secret Walls X Aotearoa Live Art battles
  • 2016 – Storylines Notable Book Award for Samoan Heroes with author David Riley[26]
  • 2016 – Heavy-Weight Tag-Team Champion of New Zealand with teammate King Haku
  • 2018 – Winner of the Zowie BenQ Tekken 7 Ladder tournament at EVO2018
  • 2020 – Recipient of the Tautai FALE-ship home residency

Professional works

Illustration and comic art
Company Year Project
Dealer Man Comics 2004 Smacktown! Comic strip for New Ground Anthology
Dealer Man Comics 2004 Sesame Street Fighter comic strip for New Ground Anthology
Dealer Man Comics 2005 Sesame Street Fighter comic strip for New Ground Anthology
Dealer Man Comics 2007 Lucha-a-Koko comic strip for New Ground anthology
Invited as a Guest Artist 2007 Knuckles the Malevolent Nun: She Might Get Rather Crude #1
Impact Pro Wrestling 2008 Emerald Justice Online comic strip
Dealer Man Comics 2008 Lucha-a-Koko comic strip for New Ground anthology
Dbvisit software company 2011 DbMan online comic strips
Invited as a Guest Artist 2011 The Gutters No.197, online comic strip
2016 Graphic Journey No.7 webcomic
SGR Universe 2016 Supershow trading card game art
BOOM! Studios 2017 WWE No.13 Samoa Joe Story
Upper Deck 2017 Marvel Premier sketch trading cards
BOOM! Studios 2018 WWE WrestleMania 2018 Special No.1 Miz Story
BOOM! Studios 2018 WWE Attitude Era 2018 Special No.1 Stone Cold Story
Upper Deck 2018 Avengers: Infinity War sketch trading cards
BOOM! Studios 2019 WWE Forever Special No.1 Bret Hart Story
BOOM! Studios 2019 WWE John Cena minicomic, Walmart Giveaway
BOOM! Studios 2019 WWE Then. Now. Forever vol.3 Stone Cold & Bret Hart story
BOOM! Studios 2019 WWE The Sami & Kevin Show Samoa Joe story
Upper Deck 2019 Marvel 80th Anniversary sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2019 Marvel Premier sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2019 Spider-man: Far From Home sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2019 Captain Marvel sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2019 Avengers: Endgame sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2020 Marvel Masterpieces sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2021 Marvel Allure sketch trading cards
Upper Deck 2021 Marvel X-Men Metal sketch trading cards
Headlocked 2010–present US Graphic Novel Series
Advertisements
Company Year Project
Colenso BBDO 2007 Memphis Meltdown Advertisement – Storyboard Artist
Colenso BBDO 2007 Waikato Draught Beer Billboards – Storyboard Artist
SKY TV 2015 Sky TV 25th Anniversary ad campaign illustrations – Heroes & Villains
Smokefree Rockquest 2019 Tangata Beats poster art
BMC Productions 2020 SIS Show Comedy Central promotional art
2K Games ANZ 2020 WWE 2K Battlegrounds promotional art
Clemenger BBDO 2021 Unite Against COVID-19 mall ad campaign
Book illustrations
Company Year Project
Reading Warrior 2015 Samoan Heroes
Reading Warrior 2015 Rugby: The Players, The Skills and The Style
Lift Education 2015 The Rules Journey, School Journal
Lift Education 2016 Breathless, School Journal
Reading Warrior 2016 Tongan Heroes
Reading Warrior 2017 Cook Island Heroes
Reading Warrior 2018 Fanene Peter Maivia: Son of Samoa
Penguin Books NZ 2018 Oh Boy! A Storybook of NZ Men
Lift Education 2019 Once a Panther, School Journal Comic
Lift Education 2019 The Choice, School Journal
Nafanua Communication & Culture Classes 2020 Samoan language online comics
Lift Education 2021 Samoan & Tongan language autobiographical comic, School Journal
Duffy Books in Homes 2015 – current Duffy Books in Home Role Model
Clothing design
Company Year Project
Juggernaut Clothing 2008 T-Shirt design for Samoan K2 Champion: Mark Hunt
Impact Pro-Wrestling 2008 Heavy-Weight Championship Winners Belt design
Overstayer Clothing 2008 T-shirt designs
Nesian Street Clothing 2012 T-shirt designs (unused)

References

  1. ↑ "Mulipola, Michel, 1981–". natlib.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  2. ↑ Carnegie, Tom (7 July 2016). "Comic book artist turned wrestler Michel Mulipola takes workshops at Te Oro". Stuff. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Michel Mulipola – Writer's Files • Read NZ Te Pou Muramura". www.read-nz.org. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Samoan Comic Artist". Bloody Samoan. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Eye of the Liger | Pasefika Proud". www.pasefikaproud.co.nz. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  6. ↑ Carnegie, Tom (7 July 2016). "Comic book artist turned wrestler Michel Mulipola takes workshops at Te Oro". Stuff. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Kapow – Workshops". Arts Murihiku. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 "Re: The comic book artist bringing free books to students". www.renews.co.nz. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  9. 1 2 "Michel Mulipola". Linkdin. April 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 "Michel Mulipola". Tautai Pacific Arts Trust. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  11. ↑ "Michel Mulipola- Comic Book Artist | Onehunga High School". my.ohs.school.nz. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  12. 1 2 Ligia (6 August 2021). "5 minutes with Michel Mulipola". Library Blog. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  13. 1 2 "ARKHAM CITY COMICS". www.arkham.co.nz. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  14. 1 2 "New ground". natlib.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  15. ↑ "Knuckles The Malevolent Nun: She Might Get Rather Crude #1 Value – GoCollect". gocollect.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  16. ↑ "Tip Top Memphis Meltdown – Tip Top". www.tiptop.co.nz. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  17. 1 2 3 "Comic seller turns to Kid Liger – Reporter meets a mild mannered man who morphs into a super-bully at night". Eastern Courier. 19 December 2014. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023 – via PressReader.
  18. ↑ Apted, Alan (6 September 2018). "Sport: Liger stoked to be defending his New Zealand heavyweight professional wrestling championship belt in Mangere". Stuff. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  19. 1 2 3 4 "Mapping Creative Hustle". Māngere-Ōtāhuhu Arts. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  20. ↑ Comic, Headlocked. "Headlocked Comic". Headlocked Comic. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  21. 1 2 Fernandes, Kymberlee (15 January 2018). "South Auckland artist Michel Mulipola lends talent to WWE star Samoa Joe". Stuff. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  22. ↑ "2020 Upper Deck Marvel X-Men Metal Universe – Etch Cards #NNO – Michel Mulipola". www.comc.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 "Books by Michel Mulipola (Author of WWE Vol. 5)". www.goodreads.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  24. ↑ "New comic series for Samoan youth". RNZ. 25 May 2020. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  25. ↑ "Brothers' comic collection inspires 'O le aiga Samoa'". www.mpp.gov.nz – Ministry for pacific Peoples. 10 January 2021. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  26. ↑ SC (3 September 2016). "Interview with Michel Mulipola Pt. 2". comics w/ a slant. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
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