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| Art by Robby Bannister |
Last week, we told you about a forthcoming series of artistic faux magazine covers based on 1970s and 1980s designs of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine, published at the time by Jim Crockett Promotions and sold in arenas as the event program. The art is courtesy of Robby Bannister.
The first in that series celebrates one of the great U.S. Champions of that era, Blackjack Mulligan. It's based on one of the classic images of Mulligan wearing the famous Unites States Heavyweight championship belt that appeared in one of the 1976 magazines. The cover design, fonts, header, etc. are based on the original 1976 issue with Paul Jones on the cover (Vol. 2 No. 4.)
Mulligan's only appearance on of the original art covers of that era was a 1978 issue where he shared the cover with Dick Murdoch. The two were the Texan tag team combination that called themselves the M&M Boys. I've always thought there should have been a cover with Mulligan as U.S. champ. He dominated the territory as the top heel in 1976 and 1977, feuding with Paul Jones, Dino Bravo, Bobo Brazil, and Ricky Steamboat over the title belt.
With Robby's artistic vision, we can now imagine what such a cover would have looked like.
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Check out more of Robby Bannister's art on his Facebook page featuring wrestlers from various territories over different eras.
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