I hope that you enjoyed my first efforts at a comic book format for my homoerotic wresting imagination. Brothers in Arms was a graphic translation of the first chapter in a story I began writing nearly 12 years ago(!). Looking back at my blog post about the original text version reminds me that the whole idea was in response to a reader request that was way, way out of my area of expertise. However, as is my wont, I took the idea in the only direction that my erotic imagination ever travels. And, pretty quickly, I got totally into the project and fell in love with the main characters.

I’ve heard from folks who’ve stumbled across my mention of my homoerotic wrestling fiction archives in past blog posts, requesting that I make those archives available to new folks. It’s been so long since I was actively administering my two archive sites, it took me a bit to even track them down. I originally had the sites behind a couple of for-your-eyes-only walls, with folks needing to sign up for a group membership, and then be permitted access. Hell, originally, it was a Yahoo group, that I migrated to a Google Group and Google Sites when Yahoo was phasing their shit out. Well, Google has also been phasing shit out, and are about to phase out what they now refer to as “Google Sites Classic,” which my old archives are now listed as. I feel like something considered “classic” should come with more perks than this does.

To cut to the chase, I’ve finally had some time to dig around, retrieve the old archives, and feel my way around the new Google Sites platform. It was another learning curve, but I think I’ve sorted out a pretty close facsimile of the now-“Classic” version of the archive that I entitled “Sidelineland Stories.” For fans seriously into their WrestleBard trivia (and I love you all dearly), you’ll notice that I started with the second archive (the first having been entitled the “Producer’s Ring”). I did that strategically, because the Brothers in Arms chapters abide at Sidelineland Stories, and since I’ve just resurrected BiA in graphic format, I wanted to share the original text version.

I’ve gone back and forth about permissions and accessibility, and finally just decided to say “fuck it,” and I’ve made it public. There are administrative downsides to doing this that I won’t get into, but I’d rather tackle those downsides than try to administer individual permissions like I did first time around. You can now take a look at the no-longer-classic Sidelineland Stories published here.

At the moment, you’re only going to find two of the original stories posted currently (there are dozens in the archive). The first chapter of Brothers in Arms is there, so you can see how the story played out similarly and differently from the graphic adaptation I just posted. I made some strategic choices to fit the comic book format, and, frankly, my imagination tweaked the story in new ways. The other story posted on the rebooted archive site is the next story I’m working on to adapt into graphic format. It is, I’m pretty sure, my favorite piece of homoerotic wrestling fiction I ever wrote, and working on the graphic adaptation is similarly driving me to distraction.

I’ll be working on migrating the rest of the archives over. My thanks to those of you who commented and liked the Brothers in Arms graphic adaptation, and to those of you who have patiently been waiting for me to provide you access to the old archives. I’m not sure where this energy for rebooting the online expression of my homoerotic wrestling kink came from, or where it’s going, but I’m having fun, which was always the point for me.