About the Cartoonist

For as long has he can remember, MICHAEL AUSHENKER has been obsessed with making comics about monsters, mobsters, wrestlers and robots, not to mention chipmunks and squirrels. The brooding talent behind the EL GATO, CRIME MANGLER was born in 1969 in Paramus, New Jersey, and Tampa, Florida. He's actually a Canarsie boy who left Brooklyn at age ten and moved to Los Angeles. He had no choice. His parents left first and he couldn't make rent. A graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, Aushenker created the original EL GATO, CRIME MANGLER comics in the summer of 1990. The first published EL GATO comics debuted in 1995's THE NINE LIVES OF EL GATO, CRIME MANGLER, followed by the 1999 sequel, ¡HOLY GHOST EL GATO! No one-trick pony, Mr. Aushenker also co-edited STRIP! magazine while attending Cornell University and had a children's book, GET THAT GOAT! published. He has also created, written and drawn CHIPMUNKS & SQUIRRELS, THOSE UNSTOPPABLE ROGUES, and the PROFESSOR PAP gag strips for HEAVY METAL. Aushenker's work has also appeared in DUPLEX PLANET, INSTANT CLASSICS, THE STRANGER, CAKE and FILTH; and his brief fling with Hollywood advertising includes poster slogans for feature films such as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER ("If you're going to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried") and EVE'S BAYOU ("Love can lead you to a dangerous place"). His special millennium edition El Gato book, FUTURESHOCK: EL GATO 2002, comes out in Jan. 2001; and his EL GATO VS. THE TIME KILLERS, due later next year, will complete the official EL GATO holy trilogy. All things Aushenker can be found at www.elgatocomics.com. ABOUT ORIGINAL SYNDICATE PRESS Founded in Los Angeles, 1995, Original Syndicate Press is the exclusive outlet for wet-your-pants-silly comic book hilarity. What else do you need to know?