CBR: Austen Revisits "The Boys of Summer"

[CBR News]

With a stellar creative team and the marketing muscle of Tokyopop behind it, Chuck Austen's "The Boys of Summer" should have been a best-seller. Instead, it's in publishing limbo.


Full article here.

[g-dawg]

Huh. Funny, I saw a copy of this book deep in the dark recesses of the manga section of a popular bookstore here in Manila many months ago. Or maybe I was seeing things. I definitely remember seeing that bikini-clad cover and wondering if my eyes deceived me when I saw the name Chuck Austen on a Tokyopop book. Gotta check if it's still there.

[MatthewDiCarlo]

I don't want to be that guy but.. "Stellar creative team"

That's all I'm saying.

[Lackshmana]

"With a stellar creative team and the marketing muscle of Tokyopop behind it, Chuck Austen's "The Boys of Summer" should have been a best-seller."

A now defunct and despised publisher and an equally defunct and despised writer...

What part of that would indicate the possibility of a best seller?

[Paladin King]

I don't want to be that guy but.. "Stellar creative team"

That's all I'm saying.

Well, I was coming here to say just the same thing....

Chuck Austen is a "stellar" writer? That's news to me.

[mugiwara]

So, a baseball romantic comedy with more than decent art got killed because there was too much fan service and a girl on the cover?
Another win for the American Puritalibans!

[Hybrid2]

Is this some kind of joke?

[The Cool Thatguy]

"With a stellar creative team and the marketing muscle of Tokyopop behind it, Chuck Austen's "The Boys of Summer" should have been a best-seller."

A now defunct and despised publisher and an equally defunct and despised writer...

What part of that would indicate the possibility of a best seller?

Dude, it has baseball! Everyone likes baseball!

Thus, win!

...right?

[grphxkindaguy]

Is this some kind of joke?

That's what I thought too! I had to check my calendar to see it wasn't April 1st...

[rescura]

While I agree that Tokyopop is in fact a unprofessional, bad publisher (as the very article here in question can show) I don't get all the Austen hate and disrespect. He may not be critical acclaimed enough to be "stellar" but I think he's pretty much a solid name on the industry...

[AdamYJ]

It's to bad this series didn't pan out. Unlike much of the American comics market (for both US comics and manga), I like sports manga. My favorite right now is probably Crossgame.

[grphxkindaguy]

I don't get all the Austen hate and disrespect. He may not be critical acclaimed enough to be "stellar" but I think he's pretty much a solid name on the industry...

Now its my turn: Is this some kind of joke?

[mugiwara]

I don't get all the Austen hate and disrespect.

Same here. Especially on Uncanny X-Men. He wasn't the best writer, but wasn't half as bad as those who came just before and after him.

And his Exiles work was neither worse, neither better than Winnick's.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Same here. Especially on Uncanny X-Men. He wasn't the best writer, but wasn't half as bad as those who came just before and after him.

And his Exiles work was neither worse, neither better than Winnick's.

He wasn't half as bad, he was worse, by miles.

The guy had personal issues that he put in almost every comic he wrote. His Exiles was probably the only decent work he ever did.

[AdamYJ]

Okay, so maybe he wasn't the best writer in superhero comics. However, just because he didn't write good superhero comics doesn't mean he couldn't write a good sports comic.