 Soon after, Heavy metal magazine published his humor comics in their Strip Tease section, which included Professor Pap, Bachelor Emeritus, a sci-fi gag strip.Past jobs include a staff writer position at a community newspaper weekly, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles (1997–2003), where he won a 2002 Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Personality Profiles" and interviewed subjects such as Sam Raimi and Sarah Silverman before they broke into the mainstream, as well as wrote articles on comic-book icons Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner before superhero movies by said creators began to dominate Hollywood; and a stint writing movie poster copy, during which Aushenker crafted slogans for print ad campaigns for "I Know What You Did Last Summer" ("If you want to bury the truth, make sure it stays buried"), "Eve's Bayou" ("Love can lead you to a dangerous place..."), "The Game", and "Space Truckers".In 2004, Aushenker co-wrote an unproduced feature comedy for the writing/producing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (creators of "Smallville" and screenwriters on the films "Spider-Man" and "Shanghai Noon") under their deal with Disney.