Tiger King Comic Book First Preview Released

The Tiger King phenomenon continues to spread across media, including the strange true-life tale getting its own comic book adaptation. Now TMZ has revealed the first look at Infamous Tiger King, a comic book series that acts as both a sequel to the Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness Netflix docu-series, and an origin story prequel for the life of Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, the man the world now knows as “Joe Exotic.” The comic is by Michael Frizell, and drawn by Joe Paradise and Jesse Johnson, and it will clearly not shy away from the dark demented nature of this American sub-culture of big exotic cat collection. See for yourself:

If you scroll through the full preview gallery for Infamous Tiger King above, you’ll see that Frizell and the artists dive right into some of the darkest bits of Joe Exotic’s life – such as the sexual abuse/rape he suffered at age five while growing up on a Kansas Farm. The comic also seems to make good use out of the interviews and footage that Tiger King documentary filmmakers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin (among others) have compiled over the years – and even new material, such as an April 2020 interview with Jeff Lowe, the current owner of Joe’s zoo and the one who sent him to prison.

Ironically enough, the Infamous Tiger King comic book is an unexpectedly fitting format for the larger-than-life nature of this bizarre world and the characters in it. Jeff Lowe just looks right when depicted as a cartoonish villain on the page; moments like seeing the abuse Joe Schreibvogel suffered, in intimate scenes of artwork, truly does impact you in a different way than hearing dodgy or specious anecdotes of Joe’s life.

The book will even be fun for fans of the comic book medium, as Frizell and the artist clearly are sneaking fun references into the series – such as the cover art above, which was clearly inspired by Spider-Man villain Kraven the Hunter:

TidalWave publisher Darren G. Davis previously spoke about wanting to continue the Tiger King phenomenon in a way that was feasible for a coronavirus pandemic world, where TV / Movie productions have been ground to a halt:

“We wanted to do something that is fun and a good distraction in regard to in the state of the world now. I am obsessed with everything in this story and wanted to tell it from a different medium. The comic book medium can be used to entertain as well as inform.”

Here’s the synopsis for Infamous Tiger King:

“Infamous: Tiger King: During the Age of COVID-19, the world needs a distraction. Perhaps that’s why we’re collectively riveted to Netflix’s Tiger King. A murder mystery in the vein of Dateline, Tiger King introduced the world to the flamboyant Joe Exotic, a former magician, country singer, and zookeeper with a troubled past. Joe now sits in jail for planning to murder his rival, Big Cat Rescue owner and animal rights activist Carole Baskin, who he accuses of killing her husband and feeding him to her tigers. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction in this origin story of both Joe and Carole in a flipbook.”

In addition to the upcoming comic, there are several Tiger King TV and Movie projects in the works.