Comic Books and MMA Don’t Mix? G4's Blair Butler Wants You To Think Again

G4 Television's Blair Butler

While conventional wisdom may think that MMA and comic books might not have much in common, Blair Butler sees it another way.

“There’s more crossover than you think,” Butler told MMAWeekly.com. “From John ‘Doomsday’ Howard to Kurt ‘Batman’ Pellegrino, and Nate Quarry, who is a huge comic book fan and has a t-shirt line called Zombie Cage Fighter, there’s a lot of crossover.”

As the segment host for G4 Television’s “Fresh Ink” and “MMA Chokehold,” Butler understands people’s hesitation to connect the two worlds.

“It’s funny; people always go ‘You like comic books and MMA? I don’t know if that necessarily correlates.’ Well, if the Punisher and Batman were real, they would be training MMA to be able to fight crime; end of story,” she commented.

Butler points out firsthand how many people have these similar tastes.

“Nate (Quarry) and I were totally nerding out about it,” she said. “It’s always great when you find you have other similar interests besides MMA when you’re talking to people.

“Blair Hurter (X-Play correspondent) and Blain Howard (X-Play content executive) also love comics and MMA, so we’ll have these crazy ‘If they were in the Octagon, who would win?’ conversations.”

As for what comic books she’d suggest to MMA fans new to the genre, Butler points out a selection that is both critically and reader acclaimed, containing great storylines and plenty of bang for your buck.

“’The Walking Dead’ is a zombie survival comic that is really brilliant,” she stated. “You wouldn’t believe the plot twists that will have you gasping and dropping the f-bomb every issue because you’re so surprised by what’s happening.

“There’s a Viking comic called ‘Northlanders’ that I like as well that is really violent, but a great book. Right now the ‘Invincible Iron Man’ series is really great. Even if you’ve only seen the movies, you can easily pick up the comic book and follow right along.”

Fans interested in checking out Butler’s “Fresh Ink” segments on both “Attack of the Show” and the web can expect some really interesting coverage of late.

“We recently covered this Thor omnibus from Marvel that’s over 1,000 pages long,” said Butler. “It’s the greatest Thor story ever told. It weighs like 12 pounds and costs around 100 bucks, but it’s amazing.

“We also covered a creepy, creepy Joker statue that’s based on the art of Lee Bermejo, who did the Joker comic back in 2008. We’ll also have a lot of other great stuff coming on Fresh Ink Online.”

As for “MMA Chokehold,” Butler is looking forward to a special surprise appearance leading into their coverage of this month’s UFC.

“We’ve had some amazing people in the past on the show like Urijah Faber, Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson, and Tito Ortiz,” stated Butler. “We’re hoping to have a really cool guest coming up for our UFC 130 discussion.

“It’s someone we’ve been trying to get for a long time, and I’ll leave it at that.”

So while you may not initially think that comic books and MMA have a connection, Butler urges you to look a little deeper and for fans of both to discover something new.

“I think the comic book fans and MMA fans have a lot of crossover,” she said in closing. “On Twitter a lot of comic book creators are tweeting back and forth about events, so these two worlds are more tightly linked than you may think.

“It’s an incredible dream to be able to cover them as part of my day job.”