Austen Returns

One of the more interesting comics careers has been that of Chuck Austen. Some of his earliest work was as an illustrator on Alan Moore's Miracleman. After being absent from the industry for a few years, he returned with work on Electra and War Machine. From there, he graduated to higher profile work as a writer on books like Uncanny X-Men and Action.

Then it all went away.

It seems like Chuck Austen became such a pariah among fans that his working relationship with DC and Marvel seemed to vanish overnight.

Now, in a lengthy interview with CBR, Austen reflects on his rocky comics career and gives the reasons for his removal from writing for DC.

What I was told was that Dan Didio had a conversation with various retailers who said they would never order anything with my name on it because they hated me so much, and that it was creating a ceiling of sales on "Action" that I would never be able to break through. So, I was off Superman. I refused to work under a pseudonym, so DC fired me and blacklisted me from the company. I took that as the opportunity to get out of comics and back into other forms of creativity.

If you havent' read it already, the complete interview makes for interesting reading.