San Gabriel Valley 2nd Annual Comic Book Festival

Cartoonista spotlight: Michael Aushenker

Name: Michael Aushenker

Where did you grow up?

Canarsie, Brooklyn, baby! When you grow up in Brooklyn, you have the hook-up on the best pizza, bagels, bialies and Italian ices in the world! It's like drugs! We lived in an apartment on 650 E. 81Street, just north of Flatlands Avenue, where my grandparents bought me my very first comic book off the spinner rack at Irving's Pizza (even though Frank's Pizza across the street ruled!). It was a Marvel Comic reprint -- Marvel Double Feature # 11 pairing Captain America and Iron Man. The Cap story was classic Stan Lee/ Jack Kirby, the back-up by Lee and Gene Colan. I was hooked instantly at the tender age of six.

What was your favorite TV cartoon as a kid?

It sure as hell wasn't Luno! Popeye the Sailor Man is my all-time favorite - the Max Fleischer ones, not the crappy color Paramount stuff. Close behind were the early Woody Woodpeckers where he's an evil, ugly bastard siphoning gas and cheating the Grim Reaper. That's been the template for most of my adult life.

Of course, the Warner Brothers cartoons were huge (although I still believe that Tex Avery made some of his funniest cartoons for Walter Lantz and MGM) and Jay Ward cartoons. In L.A., they used to play those Popeye classics with Ward's "Superchicken," "George of the Jungle" and "Tom Slick" on KTLA and that was monumental for me. My pal Rich Carradine and I were lucky to meet Jay Ward before he passed away. He used to drop by the Dudley Do-Right Emporium on Sunset and Rich and I would go there and follow him around, asking him questions, while he walked over to Greenblatt's Deli. He must have had a high threshold for pain because had a lot of patience and tolerance for us and our 10,000 questions. Maybe he served for MI-6, I'm not sure. Don't quote me on that one.

How did you come up with Greenblatt the Great?

My mom's side is French and I have a lot of relatives all over France, so back in '91, after graduating Cornell, I lived in Paris for half a year at my uncle's old bachelor pad rent-free. I devoted that period to building my comics portfolio, drawing up a lot of stuff that was published the following year by Caliber Press in a one-shot called "Bound & Gagged." The "Greenblatt the Great!" gag strips were my answer to an absurdist gag strip I was digging by Kamagurka & Seele called "Cowboy Henk." In Paris, it ran in an anthology mag, "Psikopat," as "Cowboy Jean." I originally saw "Cowboy Henk" in an issue of RAW but that particular strip was not one of the better ones and I almost forgot about it. The first one I read in Paris was one of the funniest comic strips I ever read, and the ones that followed in "Psikopat" were all good. I decided to create my own kind of A.W.O.L. character, making Greenblatt a bellhop, and giving him a supporting cast that was partly already in the works and partly influenced by Tintin and stuff like that. For some reason, I wanted the Greenblatt strips to have a Euro flavor, so I loaded the backgrounds up with store and street signs that caught my eye around France.



Who would you cast as El Gato, Crime Mangler in a movie?

Peter Dinklage. Great actor. He's gonna be big one day.

Which is more fulfilling to you, writing or drawing?

Writing by a country mile. The writing process comes very naturally, quickly and fun. The art part is labor-intensive, tedious and often frustrating. I used to love to draw up until college, when I realized that what I truly loved was to create, not execute. I only draw my own stuff because I have to. If I knew more artists with free time on their hands, I would gladly collaborate.

What artist influences you the most?

I'd like to make a distinction between "influence" and "inspiration." In the "influence" category, I'm sure my art is the amalgam of many of the above. Seventies Marvel Comics, Cracked magazines, and Tintin and Asterix comics I grew up on mixed in with my influences from the world of animated cartoons and movies (particularly Frank Tashlin's films). I was also much more into comic strips as a youth -- "Peanuts," "The Far Side," "Life in Hell."

As I entered my 20s, it was all about "Cowboy Henk" and, on the American side, the first few issues of "Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman." Much later, I discovered the great "Powerhouse Pepper" strips by Basil Wolverton. I guess what they all had in common was an absurdist flavor that spoke to my own brand of A.W.O.L. comedy.

Lately, the works I've enjoyed the most that "inspire" me to raise my game and try different things within my own comic book universe have included the original "Road to Perdition" graphic novel, which is tremendous. I refused to see the movie because they miscast it with Tom Hanks. These past couple of years, I've been digging Rutu Modan's "Exit Wounds," "Optic Nerve," reprints of "The Phantom Stranger" and "The Unknown Soldier" (both drawn by the underrated Gerry Talaoc), and random manga series I've latched onto such as "Oldboy" and "The Drifting Classroom." I'd like to add that without the growth of "alternative" comics in the last two decades, I'd quit reading them altogether, so I'm thankful for all of the distinctive voices out there.

I also draw inspiration from music, particularly the world of rap, where you’ve got guys writing some of the most clever lines out there. Lyrically and delivery-wise, I don’t think anyone tops Redman from New Jersey. Method Man’s also a longtime favorite, especially when he works in tandem with the Funk Doc. Amarpal Khanna, who illustrated one of my “Nine Loves of El Gato” stories, got me into the “Blackout” album on a road trip to the APE convention years ago. I also dig the Beastie Boys (particularly their first two albums), Run-DMC and Public Enemy. On another level, there’s nobody more Marvel Comics 70s horror in music than DMX. He is the “Werewolf By Night” of rap…or something like that. DMX is total comic book drama. He’s an action star on record! Very powerful stuff when he’s firing on all cylinders. Outside of rap, Nine Inch Nails from the Nineties is very sci-fi soundtrack and I was listening a lot to “The Fragile” when I was working on “Futureshock: El Gato 2002.”

If I put you in charge of Marvel Comics, what would be your first move?

Quit publishing.

What's next for Michael Aushenker?

In November 2008, I have two books due. The first is my own "Cartoon Flophouse Featuring Greenblatt the Great!" # 1 under my new Urban Golem imprint. This first issue will reprint the original Greenblatt strips, plus 15 new ones. I've finally decided that I enjoy creating these strips so much, I'm going to try to put out one Greenblatt the Great! book each year.

Also, I'm writing a quarterly all-ages comic book series called "Gumby's Gang Starring..." for the Gumby publishers, WildCard Ink (www.gumbycomics.com), that will focus on Gumby's supporting cast. The first one, featuring Pokey, should be out in November. Issues focusing on Prickle, Goo, and the Blockheads will follow. Each book has a different artist. Rafael Navarro illustrated "Gumby's Gang Starring Pokey." I'm especially looking forward to the "Prickle" book, as that was my original pitch. Prickle's the ickle-fickle!

I'm also working on several projects that are still in the early stages for '09. And I continue to contribute to Back Issue magazine (www.TwoMorrows.com) with new articles on Man-Thing/Tales of the Zombie, ROM: Spaceknight, and Steve Ditko due out by January.

Website: www.CartoonFlophouse.com

MySpace: www.myspace.com/elgatocrimemangler