by Robert Studwood Hues, Famous Art & Literary Critic
What follows is the third part of a deep dive into the career of Chris Auman writer, artist, and publisher. It originally appeared in Reglar Wiglar Magazine #29.
Art is Dead
“It’s the end, the end of the Seventies/It’s the end, the end of the century.”
So sang the Ramones in 1980 as the ‘Me Decade’ came to a close and the ‘Greed Decade’ ascended with all the grace of a hog on ice.
With the arrival of the ‘80s, it seemed as if the future was finally now. It was during this period that world-renowned creator Chris Auman continued his transition from visual artist to writer.
He experimented with the short story form and wrote a novella before reinventing himself yet again as a magazine publisher.
1976-1979
By the mid-1970s, Auman was bored with the art world and suspicious of his fame. He felt that critics simply did not understand his work. It was during this time that he reimagined himself as a writer.
Auman first explored the craft with the now classic short story “The Deer and the Bear.” Written in 1976, this literary masterpiece explores the friendship of two members of different species — and not just different species, but different genders as well. In this story, the two protagonists forgo the conventions of the time and move in together.
The story ends as the Deer and the Bear make plans to celebrate a birthday or something. That part is unclear, but what is clear is the message; “Can’t we all just get along?”
Even though planning a party or a social event can cause friction between even the best of friends, the answer to that message, posed as a question, is an enthusiastic “Yes, we can!”
The Deer and the Bear
Working Out Ways
After mastering the short story form with “The Deer and the Bear,” Auman attempted a more ambitious literary feat; the novella.
Working Out Ways Volume 1 is a masterwork of American fiction that tells the tale of three friends from different socioeconomic backgrounds, who try against all odds to make it in the world.
The novella features a cat, a bird, and a caterpillar. These creatures are natural enemies in the wild and represent the hierarchical food chain that exists among the species. Was Auman suggesting that these animals wanted to coexist in the same tree or wherever?
While Working Out Ways addresses an important environmental issue with its anti-logging message, the overarching theme is that sharing is nice.
‘Nice barnyard,’ they all remarked at the same time. What a wonderful place it was. As the year passed, they got to know each other better.
Volume I
Volume II
Derided by critics for its crass commercialism and pointless snowmobile rides, Working Out Ways Vol. II failed to resonate with the public. Auman scrapped plans for a third volume.
1980-1981
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, MAD World
In 1980, Auman took his considerable earnings from a successful art career and invested heavily in magazine publishing. In that year alone, the 9-year-old published several insanity-themed titles such as Crazy Fun, Crazy Games, and just plain Crazy.
Auman either didn’t know or didn’t care that a magazine titled Crazy already existed in the marketplace as he tried to capitalize on the satirical periodical craze popular among preadolescents at the time.
Two publications preceded the Crazy franchise: Neighborhood News was a free weekly newsletter distributed exclusively to neighbors and Baffling Gazette, with its $500.95 cover price, was baffling indeed.
Multiple magazines with similar titles kept readers asking WTF?
Let’s Go Crazy
After flooding the market with cheap MAD Magazine knockoffs, Auman was burning through cash at an alarming rate with little to show for it.
In a last-ditch effort to reverse his fortunes, he gambled all of his remaining funds on the 15-page Crazy Super Special.
In Crazy Super Special, Auman uses sharp satirical skewers to pierce the hides of sacred cows. In a scathing parody of nightly news coverage, Auman lambasts the newsroom motto, ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ and reveals the behind-the-scenes drama the public never sees.
America’s fascination with superheroes has long been ripe for parody. Auman sought to capitalize on this with “Onion Breath.” In this feature, an inept and stinky hero, Onion Man, manages to bungle and bumble his way into catching a windy villain.
It wasn’t just superheroes and television news personalities that Auman went after. In the feature “Laws We Would Like to See,” cabbies, bus drivers, teachers, dog owners —even the dogs themselves, were fair game.
Star Bores
Nothing was off limits for parody, not even Auman’s beloved Star Wars.
The Savage Ballet
With his Savage Ballet series, Auman was attacked by critics and patrons alike. Many felt the work was trivial and lacked the vision of his 1970s oeuvre.
He was called a sellout for abandoning political statements in favor of more pedestrian themes. Auman remained defiant, however, insisting that he did no such thing. As he protested to INTERVIEWED magazine in a 1980 profile, “Football is political! When a man feels that he must tackle another man in order to take back what he feels is his, in this case, a football, that is a political statement. Go Bears!”
Football’s warring tribes, the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, were a source of fascination for the young artist. Did the Packers actually think they were the better team? “It’s an absurd premise, of course,” observed Auman in 1980, “but it needs to be explored on the page.”
A Glimpse of Genius
In 1979, Auman started a diary — a practice he abandoned after only a few days. The few entries he did produce provide insight into his thinking during this period. For example, this entry from Wednesday details his experience visiting the local jailhouse with his Cub Scout pack.
“We cooked outside,” wrote Auman in his diary in 1979, “but we did not eat outside.” Auman often struggled with the contradictory and confusing nature of the adult world.
In 1979, Auman was told by doctors that he was near-sighted. It was a devastating blow to the young artist who was forced to wear prescription eyeglasses in order to work. He addresses this tragedy in a diary entry from that period.
In another entry, Auman reveals that he has joined a club, but cautions that “it’s not much of a club because we just run around the playground.” What is even the purpose of joining? Auman seems to be wondering. It would be the last time he would ever be a member of any club, except for the Cub Scouts and a few others.
Read more
Miss the first two installments examining Chris Auman writer and publisher? Read Part 1 and Part 2.