CHUCK AUSTEN & THE BOYS OF SUMMER

**MattBrady** · 01-10-2006, 09:35 AM

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

While soccer fans (and the entire world) eagerly await 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, Chuck Austen, on the other hand, has a different ball game that he’s interested in.

The former writer of Uncanny X-Men, Action Comics (and numerous other comics such as U.S. War Machine, Elektra, Captain America, Avengers, Eternal, Exiles as well as his unfinished creator-owned comic, WorldWatch) returns to comics (or rather OELs, ie TOKYOPOP’s Original English Language manga) with the scheduled release of the first volume of Boys of Summer this summer. The subject is Austen's return to baseball in comic form, which he touched upon previously in his adult comic, Hardball, though Boys of Summer is not an adults-only title.

According to Austen, Boys of Summer, illustrated by hentai (adult) manga-ka Hiroki Otsuka, is a romantic/comedy/drama about college, growing up, and learning to be an adult for the first time away from home. “It's the story of a college freshman named Bud who, for reasons we'll get into later in the series, is an incredibly talented pitcher who won't play for the school team no matter how much the coach begs him.

Click here for the full story and preview.

capjr · 01-10-2006, 10:03 AM

Welcome back, Mr. Austen.

Jed Saxon · 01-10-2006, 10:11 AM

WOOHOO - one of my favorite writers returns to comics. Can't wait.

BlueThunderArmy · 01-10-2006, 10:15 AM

The art looks good, and something about that cover strikes me as hilarious. Might be a fun book.

sequart · 01-10-2006, 10:29 AM

Chuck. Author of a record amount of dangling plot lines...

Do you think that Austen is really hard up for work or is this his dream job? Was he dying to tell this story? Is he in charge of his own writing destiny? Calling the shots?

Or is he working with cartoon porno artists because he needs to pay his electric and water?

What do you think?

SHABBAZZ · 01-10-2006, 10:30 AM

Will we ever see the unpublished Derenick Worldwatch pages?

**MattBrady** · 01-10-2006, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sequart
Or is he working with cartoon porno artists because he needs to pay his electric and water?

What do you think?

is this something you ask when any writer mentions it, or is this a personal beef against Austen? If it's the former, fine, not really the place though, as it's a much larger philosophical/psycholgical issue (do any of us "enjoy" work, or do we just convince ourselves that we do?); if it's the latter and you just want to make a personal bitch against Austen...well, that's what blogs are for aren't they?

I've got a pretty low tolerance for people using the boards to go on their personal crusades, vendettas and insult sprees.

MattB

ParisCub · 01-10-2006, 10:38 AM

Wasn't Austen's series called Eternal (singular)? I don't remember him writing the Eternals.

Michael C Lorah · 01-10-2006, 10:47 AM

This is not the first time I've heard praise for Mitsuru Adachi's Touch. Has it been published in English?? I'd love to read it.
The only Adachi work that I've found in English is Viz's translation of Short Program, which was extremely good stuff.

As a huge baseball fan, I'm somewhat intrigued by Austen's new book. I have, believe it or not, long wanted to see a baseball-based comic book series. I might give it a chance.

HartyPotter · 01-10-2006, 10:50 AM

Looks interesting, but I've never really trusted American manga. I hope I hear good things about it though.

Evan Brown · 01-10-2006, 10:59 AM

2 questions.

Does Chuck have a website? What happened to WorldWatch?

Harper601 · 01-10-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ParisCub
Wasn't Austen's series called Eternal (singular)? I don't remember him writing the Eternals.

This was a mini that he did some years ago. I don't recall what year it was but it was pretty good. Published under Marvel's Max line. Hope that helps.

HartyPotter · 01-10-2006, 11:02 AM

i think pariscub is right. I remember it being called The Eternal.

SHABBAZZ · 01-10-2006, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MattBrady
is this something you ask when any writer mentions it, or is this a personal beef against Austen? If it's the former, fine, not really the place though, as it's a much larger philosophical/psycholgical issue (do any of us "enjoy" work, or do we just convince ourselves that we do?); if it's the latter and you just want to make a personal bitch against Austen...well, that's what blogs are for aren't they?

I've got a pretty low tolerance for people using the boards to go on their personal crusades, vendettas and insult sprees.

MattB

This seems like an appropriate response to the 'hype' white noise fans are subjected to these days. Austen is doing a manga book featuring girls with massive breasts, curiosity as to why a guy who wrote Action Comics would choose this as a project seems like a valid question to me.

Personally I find artists' career trajectories fascinating. For example Scot McDaniel's move from Robin to Green Arrow is brilliant. The guy did serious time on Nightwing, enough so that he earned an opportunity to make a Batman run. Batman didn't pan out so he kind of got demoted down to Robin. Where does a guy who specializes in street level, gritty heros go from there within the DCU? Right over to Green Arrow, a book that sells well already, high enough profile to keep him interested and it plays to his strengths.

While I enjoyed Worldwatch for the fluff it was, I did find it surprising Austen would move from DC's big guns to another kind of 'big guns', sorry for the pun. This next move seems to further isolate him from super books. Definitely an odd choice to me.

If Newsarama is going to act as a clearing house for this kind of PR, it should be a forum for it's backlash too.

Velocity · 01-10-2006, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sequart
Chuck. Author of a record amount of dangling plot lines...

Do you think that Austen is really hard up for work or is this his dream job? Was he dying to tell this story? Is he in charge of his own writing destiny? Calling the shots?

Or is he working with cartoon porno artists because he needs to pay his electric and water?

What do you think?

Or maybe you're just bitter because you know deep down that you'll never achieve half his success in the business. Say what you want about the man's writing he's versatile.

EmeraldGuy32 · 01-10-2006, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MattBrady
is this something you ask when any writer mentions it, or is this a personal beef against Austen? If it's the former, fine, not really the place though, as it's a much larger philosophical/psycholgical issue (do any of us "enjoy" work, or do we just convince ourselves that we do?); if it's the latter and you just want to make a personal bitch against Austen...well, that's what blogs are for aren't they?

I've got a pretty low tolerance for people using the boards to go on their personal crusades, vendettas and insult sprees.

MattB

thanx for putting that guy in his place. Hopefully this doesn't turn into an Austen-bashing thread. Glad to see this guy is getting work. Hope it's a sign of things to come and the completion of WorldWatch.

BlackConvoy · 01-10-2006, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SHABBAZZ
This seems like an appropriate response to the 'hype' white noise fans are subjected to these days. Austen is doing a manga book featuring girls with massive breasts, curiosity as to why a guy who wrote Action Comics would choose this as a project seems like a valid question to me.

Personally I find artists' career trajectories fascinating. For example Scot McDaniel's move from Robin to Green Arrow is brilliant. The guy did serious time on Nightwing, enough so that he earned an opportunity to make a Batman run. Batman didn't pan out so he kind of got demoted down to Robin. Where does a guy who specializes in street level, gritty heros go from there within the DCU? Right over to Green Arrow, a book that sells well already, high enough profile to keep him interested and it plays to his strengths.

While I enjoyed Worldwatch for the fluff it was, I did find it surprising Austen would move from DC's big guns to another kind of 'big guns', sorry for the pun. This next move seems to further isolate him from super books. Definitely an odd choice to me.

If Newsarama is going to act as a clearing house for this kind of PR, it should be a forum for it's backlash too.

Why are you curious as to why a guy who wrote Action Comics is now choosing to do this current project? What exactly is wrong with it? There's nothing wrong with wanting to write something other than stories featuring grown men running around in tights all of the time. The way you're coming off it sounds like that's all Austen should do and shouldn't explore any other ideas that are in his head.

**MattBrady** · 01-10-2006, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SHABBAZZ
This seems like an appropriate response to the 'hype' white noise fans are subjected to these days. Austen is doing a manga book featuring girls with massive breasts,

girl. I still weep for reading comprehension when I'm alone at night and the whiskey wears off. I mean, did you even read the article?

Quote:

Originally posted by SHABBAZZ
curiosity as to why a guy who wrote Action Comics would choose this as a project seems like a valid question to me.

why? He's a writer. Writers write. Sure, it's a valid question for this, but again, it's a valid question for any writer, and more often than not, gets the answer, "Because it was a story I wanted to tell."

Quote:

Originally posted by SHABBAZZ
If Newsarama is going to act as a clearing house for this kind of PR, it should be a forum for it's backlash too.

Well, as with virtually every media term these days, calling the article Ben wrote a "PR" is a pretty large disservice to Ben, and inaccurate to boot, but I can't fault you that much - it's the culture. As for the forum, sure, it's a place where people can express their (sometimes) informed opinions. As I said before, which I thought was clear, was that I don't want to see this turn into a personal vendetta against a creator by an upset fan, or someone who thinks its kewl to bash a creator, personally because said creator committed the unpardonable sin of writing some stories a fan didn't like.

And no, this isn't specific to Austen - I've held to this acorss the board for all creators when I find it, or it's brought to my attention.

MattB (hoping this isn't going to turn into a semantics arguement where I have to keep coming back and explaining myself time and time again)

DianaKingston · 01-10-2006, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Velocity
Or maybe you're just bitter because you know deep down that you'll never achieve half his success in the business. Say what you want about the man's writing he's versatile.

Versatility implies being able to successfully tell all kinds of stories (ie: Brubaker) as opposed to telling one story fifteen times.

Anyway, I guess it depends on how you define success. Sure, he wrote all those books, but as I recall, he got booted off most of them rather quickly too.

**MattBrady** · 01-10-2006, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Velocity
Or maybe you're just bitter because you know deep down that you'll never achieve half his success in the business. Say what you want about the man's writing he's versatile.

please watch the personal insults. Answering a personal insult with a personal insult never accomplished anything of much value.

MattB

mrhelm · 01-10-2006, 11:24 AM

It looks pretty decent, and then I have to remind myself that 75% of Austen's writing is just plain bad.

Hopefully, this will fall in that other 25%.

Electric Glove · 01-10-2006, 11:38 AM

I'm glad Chucky's back. I feel that in the right enviroment he can be an entertaining writer, and hopefully this can showcase that.

BrotherI · 01-10-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sequart
Chuck. Author of a record amount of dangling plot lines...

Do you think that Austen is really hard up for work or is this his dream job? Was he dying to tell this story? Is he in charge of his own writing destiny? Calling the shots?

Or is he working with cartoon porno artists because he needs to pay his electric and water?

What do you think?

That you're a cynic with a penchant for attention?

This looks like a nice book that doesn't take itself too seriously. Tokyopop are pretty cheap, so I might pick it up if it gets good reviews.

Furu · 01-10-2006, 11:47 AM

Saying Austen is a hit and miss with me is a pretty big understatement, but I have to pick this up.

Chuck Austen working with a hentai artist on a OEL baseball manga?

That is just too freakin' surreal to pass up.

CParadise · 01-10-2006, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Furu
Saying Austen is a hit and miss with me is a pretty big understatement, but I have to pick this up.

Chuck Austen working with a hentai artist on a OEL baseball manga?

That is just too freakin' surreal to pass up.

And that is exactly the motivation here. He's been run off marvel, DC, his own book. Now he's doing a project where the audience does not know who he is (except the people on this board). The manga section is not for regular customers, very little crossover, so it's a perfect move to reinvent himself