Austen was one of comics’ most prominent writers during the early 2000s, penning “Uncanny X-Men” from 2002 to 2004, as well as “Captain America,” “Avengers,” “Action Comics,” and “JLA.” He was also one of the most harshly criticized, causing some retailers to refuse to stock his books. Some fans went overboard, sending Austen death threats, which he admitted took a personal toll on him. He gradually drifted away from comics to prose and animation; he most recently worked as a producer on critically acclaimed shows like She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and Steven Universe.
Austen, who began his career in animation in the late ’90s with King of the Hill, commented earlier this year in an interview with Comic Watch, “Careers were notoriously short in comics, and blacklisting common, so I knew it wouldn’t last. But I wanted to write, and it seemed like a good place to make that transition. I told my wife at the time that I’d be lucky to get five years in comics, and I got three. It was fun while it lasted.”
In the press release for “Edgeworld,” Austen stated, “Pat Olliffe and I had worked together before at Marvel on a couple projects and enjoyed the process, me writing, him drawing, us collaborating on look, scenes, and mood. We’d talked before about working together again, but I’d left comics. One day we both finally realized, ‘Hey! Why don’t we create a comic for ourselves? Just for fun?’ One rocket-sled ride later, and here we are. We never created this to sell to a publisher. We created it to create and that was very freeing.” Olliffe added, “Chuck and I have been wanting to work together on something like this for years and are thrilled to finally have it come together.”
A five-page preview of “Edgeworld” #1 can be read now at io9.
