Nick Bougas

Nicholas Arthur Bougas (born March 16, 1955 ) is an American documentary film director, illustrator, and video and record producer. He directed a number of films, including Death Scenes, a film focusing on depictions of death. He directed 2 sequels to Death Scenes, as well as a profile of Satanist Anton LaVey in 1993, Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey. He also directed a film focusing on the transgender artist Goddess Bunny, titled The Goddess Bunny.

In the late 1990s, Bougas created Celebrities... At Their Worst!, a two volume audio collection of celebrity blunders. He was also known for his collection of murderer artworks, and personally corresponded with Charles Manson. Bougas was a contributing editor and artist to the 1988 pro-Charles Manson book The Manson File. As an illustrator, Bougas worked with writer and publisher Jim Goad on his magazine Answer Me!, and contributed illustrations to the magazines The Black Flame, Brutarian, Malefact, and Exit.

As a cartoonist, he used the pen name A. Wyatt Mann to produce racist, antisemitic, antifeminist, and homophobic cartoons for the white supremacist newspaper WAR in the 1980s and 1990s, though his authorship was not confirmed until the 2010s. These cartoons are widely used as memes by white supremacists.

Early life

Nicholas Arthur Bougas was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 16, 1955, to parents Arthur Nicholas and Joyce Bougas . He attended Henderson High School in Chamblee, Georgia, and graduated in 1972. Speaking of the topics of his works, Bougas stated that he had always been interested in the "forbidden", and credited his interests to an early exposure to graphic newspaper tabloids. One murderer who responded to him was Charles Manson; he struck up a correspondence with Manson, who sent him his art. He had met LaVey through his daughter, Zeena LaVey. and Death Scenes 3 in 1993. A 2014 scholarly analysis considered it and its sequels some of the most notable American "death films". Bougas created a short film series called Murderers, Mobsters, & Mayhem on similar topics; produced for mainstream television, these were less explicit, though focused on similar subject matter.

Bougas was a contributing editor and artist for the 1988 pro-Charles Manson book The Manson File, edited by Nikolas Schreck and published by Adam Parfrey's Amok Press. He directed a film about Manson, Charles Manson Then and Now, in 1992. He was present at the 8/8/88 Nazi-Satanist rally, alongside several of his associates. Bougas directed several other films, such as the 1994 documentary The Goddess Bunny about disabled transgender tap dancing artist Sandie Crisp. He also directed two films that focus on death in Hollywood stars: When the Applause Died and Death in Hollywood, both released in 1990. In 1994, he directed Gay! Gay! Hollywood, a documentary focusing on the lives of gay (or allegedly gay) Hollywood stars.

In 1997, Bougas released the first volume of Celebrities... At Their Worst!, a collection of comedic audio blunders by such celebrities as Elvis Presley, Casey Kasem, Paul Anka, and John Wayne. It was released by the label Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God. He released a second volume in 1998.

A. Wyatt Mann

Bougas used the pseudonym "A. Wyatt Mann" (phonetically: 'a white man') to produce overtly racist and antisemitic cartoons in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were first published in the white supremacist newspaper WAR, operated by Tom Metzger. Bougas' work as Mann has frequently been combined by Internet trolls with cartoons by political cartoonist Ben Garrison, which Garrison said generates confusion between the two artists.

Separate from the WAR cartoons, Bougas also used the A. Wyatt Mann name to illustrate the 1989 antisemitic journal Tales of the Holohoax: A Journal of Satire, written by Michael A. Hoffman II. Under his own name, Bougas had illustrated Hoffman's 1988 novel, A Candidate for the Order, which focuses on a racial apocalypse.

Works

Filmography

Discography Satan Takes a Holiday (1995; by Anton LaVey, with Bougas as a contributor) Celebrities... At Their Worst! (1997) Celebrities... At Their Worst! Volume 2 (1998)