Michael Aushenker
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| Michael Aushenker | |
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| Birth name | Michael Aushenker |
| Born | 1969 Canarsie, Brooklyn, New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer Penciller Inker |
| Notable works | El Gato, Crime Mangler Chipmunks & Squirrels Those Unstoppable Rogues |
This article refers to the independent comic-book artist.
Michael Aushenker is an independent American comic-book artist and creator based in Los Angeles, California, best known for the comic book series El Gato, Crime Mangler. He has also created Chipmunks & Squirrels, Those Unstoppable Rogues, and Cartoon Flophouse (featuring the absurdist Euro-flavored bellhop strip Greenblatt the Great!), and his work has appeared in such publications as Heavy Metal magazine (his "Professor Pap" series and other gag strips in the magazine's "Strip Tease" section), Duplex Planet (# 11), Instant Classics, The Stranger, Cake, and Filth.
The "El Gato, Crime Mangler" series includes The Nine Lives of El Gato, Crime Mangler (1995), ¡Holy Ghost El Gato! (1999), Futureshock: El Gato 2002 (2000), and The Nine Loves of El Gato, Crime Mangler (2003).
Aushenker freelances as a screenwriter and continues to write comic books for various companies, including Bongo Comics Group and Heroic Publishing. He wrote a two-part Liberty Girl story for the latter, the first of which was released in Liberty Comics # 1, September 2007. On September 18, 2007, El Muerto, a film starring Wilmer Valderrama and Tony Plana, based on the Javier Hernandez comic book El Muerto, Aztec Zombie, was released on DVD, for which Aushenker contributed a painting on the disc's gallery section.
Aushenker graduated from Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. In 1991, he graduated from Cornell University, where he majored in fine arts and creative writing. While attending Cornell, at the age of 19, Aushenker authored and illustrated the children's book Get That Goat! (Landmark Editions) and co-founded and co-edited Strip! magazine, a student cartoonist quarterly, with a collective that included Andrice Arp, Bishakh Som, and Howard Arey (who have since formed Hi-Horse Comics) and Patty Lin (a writer/producer on Freaks and Geeks and the first season of Desperate Housewives). In 1992, following college, Caliber Press published his first comic book, a one-shot humor anthology dubbed Bound & Gagged that featured such Aushenker creations as "The Debunker" and "Stunt Nun." Soon after, Heavy Metal magazine published his humor comics in their Strip Tease section, which included Professor Pap, Bachelor Emeritus, a sci-fi gag strip.
Past jobs include a staff writer position at a community newspaper weekly, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles (1997-2003), where he won a 2002 Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Personality Profiles"; and a stint writing movie poster copy, during which Aushenker crafted slogans for print ad campaigns for I Know What You Did Last Summer ("If you want to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried"), Eve's Bayou ("Love can lead you to a dangerous place..."), The Game, and Space Truckers.
In 2004, Aushenker co-wrote an unproduced feature comedy for the writing/producing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (creators of Smallville and screenwriters on the films Spider-Man and Shanghai Noon) under their deal with Disney. He has also co-written a feature film comedy for Urban Entertainment, the producers of "Undercover Brother."
During the fourth season of SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon hired Aushenker to create episode ideas for the hit animated series.
Aushenker is a contributing writer for Back Issue magazine, a TwoMorrows publication devoted to comics from the 1970s and 1980s. His first article, about Marvel Comics' short-lived The Human Fly (comics), ran in the January 2007 issue (# 20). Subsequent issues featured his articles on Son of Satan, Captain America and the Falcon, Deathlok the Demolisher, and Mr. T comics.
Aushenker is among the alternative cartoonists (along with Russ Heath and Dean Yeagle) appearing in a comic book convention-themed episode of the hit CBS series NUMB3RS. The episode's original air date: November 23, 2007.
In January 2008, Aushenker began writing regularly for the Lifestyle section of the Palisadian-Post, the 80-year-old official newspaper of Pacific Palisades, California. Aushenker's articles have included profiles of Seymour Cassel, Gavin MacLeod, Marion Ross, and Stacy Peralta, as well as coverage of events featuring Ray Bradbury and Isabel Allende.
Aushenker is currently working on several new comics for various companies, including a Gumby spin-off series due to drop summer 2008; and Liberty Comics # 2, featuring part two of his Liberty Girl story (July 2008). A new imprint, Urban Golem, will publish his second Cartoon Flophouse comic book of gag cartoons, Greenblatt the Great!. The comic book is scheduled to have its official debut at the Alternative Press Expo in November 2008.
Wildcard Ink publisher Mel Smith announced at Wonder Con in March 2008 that the Gumby comics series will be called Gumby's Gang Featuring..., and each book will spotlight a different Gumby supporting character, including Prickle, Goo, and The Blockheads. The first Gumby's Gang comic, focusing on Pokey, will feature art by Rafael Navarro and will debut at Comic-Con International in July 2008, with Prickle to follow in November.
