Chuck Austen

Chuck Austen

Chuck Austen, whose real name is Chuck Beckum, was born in California.

He spent his childhood following his parents from one end of the country to the other, his father being in the military. Even if he hates these successive moves, it gives him a good point of view on the United States and its inhabitants. 

He took illustration and writing courses, and learned the techniques from the greats in each discipline. Chuck always wanted to be a creative, he started drawing very young, and became interested in his art in the same way he had discovered his country. He was as fascinated by manga as European comics and studied them as diligently as US comics.
 

In the 1980s, after his studies, he moved to San Francisco, where he began commercial illustrations. He worked as an assistant to an illustrator whose biggest client was Lucasfilm.
He also worked with Eclipse & DC, on Phantom Lady and Miracleman with Alan Moore, under his real name, which he will later abandon to dissociate from his father's last name.
He also produced several pornographic comics such as Strips, WorldWatch or Hardball.
At the end of the 80s, he drew the first five stories from the mini-series (which will not last long) Hero Sandwich, written by Dan Vado, and published by Slave Labor Graphics.

He then went on to video games, working for various companies on games like Falcon, Star Trek, John Madden Football, Shockwave and Road Rash.

In the 1990s, Chuck finally leaves San Francisco and the video game industry to settle in Los Angeles where he devotes himself to animation and TV series.
In 1997, he became a production coordinator for the first six seasons of the TV series "King of the Hill", before becoming the artistic director.

In 2000, he created with his old friend Chris Moeller a series called Tripping the Rift, whose pilot obtained first place in the prestigious Playboy animation festival. Tripping the Rift is now one of the successful series of the Sci-Fi chain and the second season is on its way.
But the comics industry is still in his mind. The combination of drawing and writing, as well as the enormous freedom of creation make him want to return to superheroes, and it is the same year that he began a career at Marvel Comics, with the series US War Machine , which he writes and draws. Then he illustrated two Elektra and wrote several episodes for series such as Captain America, The Avengers, or Uncanny X-Men (his best known but also the most controversial series).

In 2004, he leaves Marvel, after a disagreement about the New X-Men series, and goes to DC Comics, where he will work on series such as Action Comics or Superman, series on which he will find, from the readers, the same controversies as on X-Men, and that therefore will stop after the 10th episode.
The Worlwatch series, which he created after leaving DC, would attract the same criticism from those he himself called the "Seven Deadly Trolls".

In 2005, he feels that the comics genre limits him. In addition, Chuck Austen is tired of the multiple controversies involved with his work on superheroes.
He dreams of creating and developing his own stories. It's done with La citadelle du vide, the first volume in the cyberpunk series L'Infini, published by Humanoïdes Associés, and drawn by Matt Cossin.

In 2006, "Organic Transfer", scheduled for November, closes the series "L'infini".

Chuck currently lives in the outskirts of Los Angeles with his wife, television producer, a dog, two cats and a pleasant mortgage which he finances regularly.

Bibliography