Chuck Austen was born Chuck Beckum.[1] He grew up amilitary brat,[4] and after his parents divorced, he was raised by his single mother in ahousing project.[5] At the start of his career Austen used his birthname; he later abandoned out of a desire to disassociate from his father's family name.[1] After marrying, he and his wife picked a new name, inspired byJane Austen.[6]
Austen began his career as an artist in the 1980s. Due to not knowing many comics fans he developed a habit ofinking his ownpencils.[6] After working onEclipse Comics titles such asTwisted Tales andAlien Worlds, his work came to the attention ofAlan Moore, who selected him to take over fromAlan Davis onMiracleman, recently added to the company's portfolio. He met Moore for the first time at the 1985San Diego Comic Con, where he was also announced as the new artist on the title. As the series initially reprinted material from the BritishanthologyWarrior his work on the main strip started inMiracleman #6,cover dated February 1986. Austen's run on the title was short-lived - after contributing a framing sequence toMiracleman #8 he left.[6]
Austen returned to comics in 2001, feeling burnt out after finding little success in the film and television industry. He began looking at comics again and sent samples of his art toMarvel Comics editor-in-chiefJoe Quesada, who was impressed enough to offer Austen the chance to illustrate the newMarvel KnightsElektra series, written byBrian Michael Bendis.[6] He would remain as the title's artist untilElektra #8. Soon after being commissioned, he also began writing and illustrating the weekly maxi-seriesU.S. War Machine for then-recently launchedMarvel MAX imprint.[4] The series drew controversy not only for its violent content, but also because it debuted the day after theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks. In 2003, Austen followed up withU.S. War Machine 2.0, which was published the day after U.S.President George W. Bush's March 17, 2003 ultimatum to Iraqi PresidentSaddam Hussein to leave Iraq,[7] prompting Austen to jokingly comment, "I feel like I should stop doing this book so the world will stay at peace."[8] Using the creative liberties provided due to the fact that series was set outside the mainlineMarvel Universe, Austen wrote Rhodes' bossTony Stark as more pacifist and business-minded than his mainstream counterpart, and Rhodes himself as the proactive protector.[4] Also in 2003, Austen launched another series for Marvel MAX, the six-issueThe Eternal with artistKev Walker, a reimagining ofJack Kirby'sEternals.[8]
In 2002, Austen took overUncanny X-Men with issue #410[9] and remained on the title until #443. The two-year run was the most lengthy writing assignment in Austen's mainstream career,[1] although it was not well received by the fans of the franchise.[10][11][12] His controversial[13][14] run saw the return ofHavok[15] andPolaris[16] to theX-Men, the introduction of Havok's love interestAnnie Ghazikhanian,[17] and the addition of several existing characters to the X-Men team, includingNorthstar,[18]Juggernaut,[19]M,[20] andHusk.[21] The most controversial storyline revealed the identity ofNightcrawler's father: an immortal mutant known asAzazel.[22][12][11] Austen moved toNew X-Men as part of theX-Men Reload initiative, and wrote the series for nine issues.[23][24] During this run, he showcased the beginning of the relationship betweenCyclops andEmma Frost following the death ofJean Grey[25] and introduced new versions of the characterXorn[26] and theBrotherhood of Evil Mutants.[27] Michael Aronson ofSilver Bullet Comics, while praising Austen's characterization ofProfessor X and Annie Ghazikhanian, excoriated Austen for what Aronson saw as his obsession with relationships and sex, and the sexist nature of his characterization ofHusk.[28] According to Thor K. Jensen ofUGO Entertainment, fans disliked the romantic pairing ofAngel and Husk; Jensen cites that storyline as emblematic of critical reception to Austen's run onX-Men.[29]
In 2003, Austen wrote a brief run onCaptain America, finishing the storylines that were started by the outgoing writerJohn Ney Rieber.[30] In 2004, Austen took overThe Avengers, introducing a new, femaleCaptain Britain (since renamedLionheart), a single mother thrust into the realm of super-heroes after being killed as an innocent bystander during a fight between theAvengers and theWrecking Crew, only to be resurrected by the original Captain Britain.[31] The second arc, which saw Austen writing former AvengersU.S. Agent andNamor the Sub-Mariner attempting to liberate a Middle Eastern country from its corrupt leadership, served as launching pad for the short-livedNew Invaders series.[32][33][34] Non-superhero Marvel work of the time includesThe Call of Duty, a project consisting of several mini-series conceived in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks that were written primarily by Austen (with one series written byBruce Jones) and featured firefighters and emergency service workers dealing with paranormal phenomena in the Marvel Universe,[35][36] as well asEden's Trail with artistSteve Uy, a series in "Marvelscope" (landscape) format created to capitalize on the burgeoning manga market which resulted in controversy when Uy publicly disowned the project, calling it a "bad dream".[37]
Also in 2003, Austen returned toDC Comics with the limited seriesSuperman: Metropolis which followed the life ofJimmy Olsen and other citizens of the eponymous fictional city.[38] After the series concluded with issue #12, Austen took over the writing duties of the ongoing seriesAction Comics. Fans criticized Austen for resurrecting the long-forgottenSilver Age feud betweenLois Lane andLana Lang over the love ofSuperman, with Lana in particular divorcing her longtime husbandPete Ross in the process.[5] Austen left the title after ten issues,[39] and the following two issues were scripted by a writer named "J.D. Finn". While readers suspected Finn to be Austen, he speculated that Finn was actually then–Action Comics editorEddie Berganza and denied using the pseudonym.[5][11]
In 2004, Austen began self-publishingWorldWatch, a superhero series which he described as similar toWarren Ellis'sThe Authority with more explicit depictions of sex, violence andrealpolitik.[40] The last page ofWorldwatch #2 featured an announcement from the publisher stating that Austen had been fired, and that he would be replaced by a writer namedSam Clemens (which is the real name of American writerMark Twain). In a subsequent interview, Austen revealed that this was intended as a joke (since he himself was the publisher and thus could not be fired from the book) and expressed disappointment in the fact that most readers had not understood it.[5]
In 2006, Austen wroteBoys of Summer, an English languageadult-themed manga illustrated byHiroki Otsuka and published byTokyoPop.[2] Copies of the first volume were pulled from a number of bookstores in May that year due to its graphic content.[39]Publishers Weekly namedBoys of Summer one of the Top Tenmanga/manhwa of 2006, calling it both "a titillating and edgy reading experience."[41] Subsequent news reports indicated that the series had been cancelled even though the other two volumes were completed and both creators had been paid for the work.[39]
During his stint at the Big Two, Austen used the expression "Seven DeadlyTrolls". In Austen's point of view, there was a small group of people, not representative of the wider comics readership, that usedinternet message boards,blogs andnewsgroups to attack him on a professional and personal level.[45] Austen has stated that he received death threats from fans and had certain comic book store owners refuse to stock any comics written by him.[5] He also admitted to taking online criticism of his work personally, and made a decision to stop doing interviews in August 2003.[46] In a 2004 interview, Austen explained that decision as a result of a "bad day".[45]
Austen is divorced.[6] He has two daughters[4] and a son.[3]
He identifies himself as humanitarian and anti-racist.[5] In Austen's view, theRepublican Party discriminates against women, and he especially disliked theBush administration.[4]
In 2014,Marvel re-released these stories inMiracleman #7–8 (where Moore is credited as "The Original Writer") as part of the series' reprint with remastered and recolored art.
The remastered and recolored versions of the stories are collected inMiracleman: The Red King Syndrome (hc, 224 pages,Marvel, 2014,ISBN0-7851-5464-7)
Zot! #19: "Getting to 99" (as artist, written byScott McCloud, 1988) collected inZot! The Complete Black and White Collection (tpb, 576 pages,It Books, 2008,ISBN0-06-153727-6)
Strips #1–12 (script and art, with issues #1–9 published byRip Off Press in 1989–1991 and #10–12 self-published asWhite Buffaloe in 1997)
In 1997, White Buffaloe also began reprinting the early issues with additional material asStrips: The Special Edition, but stopped only after two issues.
The only other publication by White Buffaloe besides the five issues ofStrips wasWhite Buffaloe HomePage, written and drawn by Austen, also in 1997.
