Chris Claremont Chuck Austen John Kelly Popular Books

Chris Claremont Chuck Austen John Kelly Biography & Facts

Chuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) is an American comic book writer and artist, television writer and producer. In the comics industry, he is known for his work on U.S. War Machine, The Avengers, JLA, Action Comics and the X-Men franchise. In television, he is known for co-creating the animated TV series Tripping the Rift, producing the first season of Steven Universe, and acting as a co-showrunner on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Early life Chuck Austen was born Chuck Beckum. He grew up a military brat, and after his parents divorced, he was raised by his single mother in a housing project. 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. After marrying he and his wife picked a new name, inspired by Jane Austen. Career Austen began his career as an artist in the 1980s. Due to not knowing many comics fans he developed a habit of inking his own pencils. After working on Eclipse Comics titles such as Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds, his work came to the attention of Alan Moore, who selected him to take over from Alan Davis on Miracleman, recently added to the company's portfolio. He met Moore for the first time at the 1985 San Diego Comic Con, where he was also announced as the new artist on the title. As the series initially reprinted material from the British anthology Warrior he worked on the main strip until Miracleman #6, cover dated February 1986. Austen's run on the title was short-lived - after contributing a framing sequence to Miracleman #8 he left, something he blamed on Eclipse editor-in-chief Catherine Yronwode making an angry telephone call to his grandmother. Subsequently he drew the first five issues for the short-lived series Hero Sandwich for Slave Labor Graphics, as well as stints on The Badger for First Comics and two issues of Scott McCloud's Zot!, covering for the artist's honeymoon. Austen also wrote and drew the semi-autobiographical black-and-white pornographic comic book series Strips for Rip Off Press and the similarly-themed Hardball for Malibu Comics' Aircel Comics label. He also provided art to lesser-known series such as Open Season and The Trouble with Girls as well as a few DC Comics properties including a Phantom Lady serial for Action Comics Weekly and a short Green Flame story for Secret Origins. Before taking a break from comics, Austen also drew an issue of Disney's The Little Mermaid limited series, due to the high page rates Disney offered and the chance to work with Peter David. He subsequently took a hiatus from the comics industry, instead working on the television show King of the Hill. 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 to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who was impressed enough to offer Austen the chance to illustrate the new Marvel Knights Elektra series, written by Brian Michael Bendis. He would remain as the title's artist until Elektra #8. Soon after being commissioned he also began writing and illustrating the weekly maxi-series U.S. War Machine for then-recently launched Marvel MAX imprint. The series drew controversy not only for its violent content, but also because it debuted the day after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2003, Austen followed up with U.S. War Machine 2.0, which was published the day after U.S. President George W. Bush's March 17, 2003 ultimatum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq, prompting Austen to jokingly comment, "I feel like I should stop doing this book so the world will stay at peace." Using the creative liberties provided due to the fact that series was set outside the mainline Marvel Universe, Austen wrote Rhodes' boss Tony Stark as more pacifist and business-minded than his mainstream counterpart, and Rhodes himself as the proactive protector. Also in 2003, Austen launched another series for Marvel MAX, the six-issue The Eternal with artist Kev Walker, a reimagining of Jack Kirby's Eternals. In 2002, Austen took over Uncanny X-Men with issue #410 and remained on the title until #443. The two-year run was the most lengthy writing assignment in Austen's mainstream career, although it was not well received by the fans of the franchise. His controversial run saw the return of Havok and Polaris to the X-Men, the introduction of Havok's love interest Annie Ghazikhanian, and the addition of several existing characters to the X-Men team, including Northstar, Juggernaut, M, and Husk. The most controversial storyline revealed the identity of Nightcrawler's father: an immortal mutant known as Azazel. Austen moved to New X-Men as part of the X-Men Reload initiative, and wrote the series for nine issues. During this run, he showcased the beginning of the relationship between Cyclops and Emma Frost following the death of Jean Grey and introduced new versions of the character Xorn and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Michael Aronson of Silver Bullet Comics, while praising Austen's characterization of Professor X and Annie Ghazikhanian, excoriated Austen for what Aronson saw as his obsession with relationships and sex, and the sexist nature of his characterization of Husk. According to Thor K. Jensen of UGO Entertainment, fans disliked the romantic pairing of Angel and Husk; Jensen cites that storyline as emblematic of critical reception to Austen's run on X-Men. In 2003, Austen wrote a brief run on Captain America, finishing the storylines that were started by the outgoing writer John Ney Rieber. In 2004, Austen took over The Avengers, introducing a new, female Captain Britain (since renamed Lionheart), a single mother thrust into the realm of super-heroes after being killed as an innocent bystander during a fight between the Avengers and the Wrecking Crew, only to be resurrected by the original Captain Britain. The second arc, which saw Austen writing former Avengers U.S. Agent and Namor the Sub-Mariner attempting to liberate a Middle Eastern country from its corrupt leadership, served as launching pad for the short-lived New Invaders series. Non-superhero Marvel work of the time includes The 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 by Bruce Jones) and featured firefighters and emergency service workers dealing with paranormal phenomena in the Marvel Universe, as well as Eden's Trail with artist Steve 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". Also in 2003, Austen returned to DC Comics with the limited series Superman: Metropolis which followed the life of Jimmy Olsen and other citizens of the eponymous fictional city. After the series concluded with issue #1.... Discover the Chris Claremont Chuck Austen John Kelly popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Chris Claremont Chuck Austen John Kelly books.