It’s Christmas in July! Marvel announced right before the Fourth of July holiday that Chuck Austen is not only exiting the X-Men books he writes, but Marvel as a whole. As usual they don’t get into details, but who really cares? This feels almost as good as when Lobdell finally left!
Click to see the press release.
CHUCK AUSTEN LEAVES XAVIER’S SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNGSTERS
Chuck Austen, one of Marvel’s go-to talents for the past few years, will be resigning from his monthly commitment on X-Men. Austen’s last issue is slated to ship in the fourth quarter of 2004, with more details to be announced over the coming weeks. Austen, who gained fame for his ability to relate character-driven stories, has worked on Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers, War Machine and many other titles.
“Marvel Comics, and Joe Quesada in particular, gave me a chance when no one else would, as both a writer and an artist, and helped get my career jump-started in the comics profession. For that I will always be deeply appreciative, and owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude. It’s a very difficult thing to leave Marvel, particularly with the personal relationships I had developed over the past few years with the great editors–people like Mike Marts, Ralph Macchio, C.B. Cebulski, Nick Lowe, Nanci Quesada, Tom Brevoort, and of course, Joe. It’s the people who make a company, and Marvel has some of the best in the business,” said Chuck Austen.
Joe Quesada, Marvel’s Editor in Chief added, “Chuck is a true professional. We at Marvel really want to thank him for his years of hard work, and we look forward to finding him another project down the road!”
Marvel’s Publisher Dan Buckley concluded, “We will certainly welcome Chuck back when and if the time comes. His writing has been top-notch and his shoes will be hard to fill.”
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I don’t get it? If it wasn’t amicable, why the press release? This probably means he got a TV writing gig.
“I left because, as I and Joe Q. and others have said in recent interviews, Marvel has changed its internal policies about what is, and is not acceptable in their comics, and I was finding it very difficult to write that way.
Not that I couldn’t scale back, and not that Mike Marts and the rest didn’t want me to try and felt I couldn’t. But I’m not naturally geared that way as a creator, and so it took a lot more work, and that work became less enjoyable. Eternal and US War Machine are my true north, so anything less adult and intense from there is harder for me to write. My favorite show on television is Deadwood [laughs]! So, more re-writes, and heavier notes from editorial are less fun, more time consuming and less cost-effective. It’s just a business decision, really. I can write the way I’m inclined elsewhere than Marvel, and Marvel can find writers who write the way they want, so why not do it?”
Dance on his grave, why dontcha? 😉