Michel Mulipola

Michel Mulipola (born 1981) is a New Zealand comic book artist and trained professional wrestler of Samoan descent who lives in South Auckland, New Zealand. He is more commonly known by his artist pseudonym Bloody Samoan or as his supervillain pro-wrestling character Liger. For his comic artist work Mulipola was awarded the Gibson Award for Best New Zealand Comic Book Artist, 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). Over the years he has and continues to serve his wider community through comic and illustration workshops for interested youth in across the country as well as school visits with Duffy Books In Homes. 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.

Early life

Mulipola is a New Zealand born Samoan raised in Māngere, South Auckland. His Samoan heritage traces back to the villages of Lefaga and Vaimoso, 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. He taught himself and has refined and deepened his craft independently since. 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. Bishop created an anthology comic strip series called New Ground He also was a storyboard artist for advertisements with prominent New Zealand brands Memphis Meltdown and Waikato Draught Beer during this time. Inspired by this he happened to see that the Pro-Wrestling organisation had tryouts coming up. Mulipola also designed the Heavy-Weight Championship Winners' belt for this event. At the convention, Mulipola presented his portfolio to professionals at the DC Comics booth and networked with representatives from WWE, leading to future collaborations.

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. The 13th issue being centred around Samoa Joe. A Samoan comic book artist and pro-wrestler illustrating the iconic Samoan Pro-Wrestler. Mulipola has created promotional art and campaigns for companies such as Colenso BBD (2007), SKY TV (2015), SmokeFree RockQuest (2019), BMC Productions (2020), 2K Games ANZ (2020) and Clemenger BBDO (2021). His books celebrate and educate the youth about the Pacific, these are accessible in schools across the country.

Mulipola is a role model for the Duffy Books in Homes Charitable Foundation. 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