Nick Bougas

Nick Bougas
Bougas in 2008
Born
Nicholas Arthur Bougas

(1955-03-16)March 16, 1955
Savannah, Georgia
DiedAugust 22, 2026(2026-08-22) (aged 71)
Cumming, Georgia, U.S.
Other nameA. Wyatt Mann
OccupationsFilm director, illustrator, record producer, cartoonist

Nicholas Arthur Bougas (March 16, 1955 – August 22, 2026) was 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

Bougas's 1972 yearbook photo

Nicholas Arthur Bougas[1] was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 16, 1955, to parents Arthur Nicholas and Joyce Bougas (née Catarina).[2] He attended Henderson High School in Chamblee, Georgia, and graduated in 1972.[2][3] Speaking of the topics of his works, Bougas stated that he had always been interested in the "forbidden",[4] and credited his interests to an early exposure to graphic newspaper tabloids.[5]

Career

Bougas moved to California, where, in the 1970s, he started collecting autographs of famous people, and then became interested in collecting the autographs of murderers.[6] One murderer who responded to him was Charles Manson; he struck up a correspondence with Manson, who sent him his art.[5][6] Bougas afterwards became interested in collecting the art of killers, including Ottis Toole, Kenneth Bianchi, Henry Lee Lucas, and John Wayne Gacy; according to The New Republic writer Alex Heard, Bougas was in large part responsible for starting the serial killer art collection fad.[6] He was pen pals with several notorious criminals.[5]

In 1987, Bougas began working for Wavelength Productions, a Burbank-based movie production company, as a researcher, editor, and later producer. He worked on several television documentaries, and Wavelength released many of his films.[2][5] Bougas directed the mondo film Death Scenes, hosted by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey. It was written by Bougas and F.B. Vincenzo, produced by Wavelength and released in 1989.[7][8] He had met LaVey through his daughter, Zeena LaVey.[5] The film was followed by Death Scenes 2 in 1992,[9] and Death Scenes 3 in 1993.[10] A 2014 scholarly analysis considered it and its sequels some of the most notable American "death films".[9]

Bougas made a film focusing on depictions of the crimes of serial killers, titled Serial Killers, in 1994.[11] 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.[5][12]

Bougas was a contributing editor and artist to the 1988 pro-Charles Manson book The Manson File, edited by Nikolas Schreck and published by Adam Parfrey's Amok Press.[13][14] He directed a film about Manson, Charles Manson Then and Now, in 1992.[13] As an illustrator, Bougas worked with writer and publisher Jim Goad on his magazine Answer Me![13] He also occasionally drew covers for the Church of Satan's magazine, The Black Flame,[13] and contributed illustrations to Adam Parfrey and George Petros's magazine Exit, Tom Crites's magazine Malefact, and the magazine Brutarian.[15][16] He was present at the 8/8/88 Nazi-Satanist rally, alongside several of his associates.[13][17]

In 1993, he directed the documentary Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey, a profile of LaVey.[18][19][20] Bougas directed several other films, such as the 1994 documentary The Goddess Bunny about disabled transgender tap dancing artist Sandie Crisp.[21] He also directed two films that focus on death in Hollywood stars: When the Applause Died and Death in Hollywood, both released in 1990.[22][23] In 1994, he directed Gay! Gay! Hollywood, a documentary focusing on the lives of gay (or allegedly gay) Hollywood stars.[24]

In 1997, Bougas released the first volume of Celebrities... At Their Worst!,[25] 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.[26][27][28] He released a second volume in 1998.[29][30][31]

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.[17][32][13] They were first published in the white supremacist newspaper WAR, operated by Tom Metzger.[13]

Besides black people and Jews, his cartoons occasionally targeted other minorities and groups, including gay people and feminists.[17] Bougas being the person behind the pseudonym was suspected, though this was not confirmed for many years. Another suspect was the white supremacist and WAR managing editor Wyatt Kaldenberg (Kaldenberg being a white supremacist involved in the WAR paper, and named Wyatt). Kaldenberg denied this in 2014, saying he had "never drawn a cartoon in [his] life", and that it was "Nick Bogus [sic]".[17] Bougas had until then never confirmed his authorship; however, his identity as Mann was confirmed in 2015 by multiple people who worked with him (including Schreck, Parfrey, and Kaldenberg), and in captions of photos taken at various events.[17]

The Mann cartoons have been widely reused as memes in original context by white supremacists, various internet trolls, and later, the alt-right. One cartoon in particular, a stereotypical caricature of a Jewish person referred to as the "Happy Merchant", became one of the most popular antisemitic images on the internet. It has been reused, modified, and parodied multiple times, eventually becoming part of the visual language of websites such as 4chan.[17][33][34] 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.[35][32]

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.[36] Under his own name, Bougas had illustrated Hoffman's 1988 novel, A Candidate for the Order, which focuses on a racial apocalypse.[37]

Death

Bougas died in Cumming, Georgia, on August 22, 2026, at the age of 71.[38]

Works

Filmography

Year Title Functioned as Notes
Director Producer Editor Writer
1989 Death Scenes Yes Yes No Yes
1990 When the Applause Died Yes Yes No No
Death in Hollywood Yes Yes No No
1992 Death Scenes 2 Yes Yes No Yes
Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography of the Legend Yes Yes No No
Charles Manson Then and Now Yes Yes No Yes
1993 Death Scenes 3 Yes No No No
Burn Baby Burn: Riots and Violence in the Modern World Yes No Yes No
Speak of the Devil: The Canon of Anton LaVey Yes Yes Yes No
1994 The Goddess Bunny Yes No Yes No
Serial Killers Yes No No Yes
Gay! Gay! Hollywood Yes Yes No No

Discography

Bibliography

  • Schreck, Nikolas, ed. (1988). The Manson File. Associate editors are Boyd Rice, Nick Bougas, Jimmi Rocket, John Aes-Nihil, and Jack Stevenson. New York: Amok Press. ISBN 0-941693-04-X.
  • Hoffman, Michael A. II (1988). A Candidate for the Order. Illustrated by Nick Bougas. New York; Los Angeles: New Traditionalist Press. ISBN 0-929903-00-5. OCLC 41781073.
  • Hoffman, Michael A. II (1989). Tales of the Holohoax: A Journal of Satire. Illustrated by A. W. Mann. Temecula: Wiswell Ruffin House. OCLC 456104664.

References

  1. ↑ The Catamount. Chamblee, Georgia: Henderson High School. 1972. p. 211.
  2. 1 2 3 "Bougas, Nick Arthur". Who's Who in Entertainment (2nd ed.). Wilmette: Marquis Who's Who. 1992. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8379-1851-8.
  3. ↑ "Caps, Gowns Ready for 254 at Henderson". The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Vol. 22, no. 57. May 28, 1972. p. 8-S. ISSN 1539-7459. Retrieved August 25, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "Celebrities at Their Worst". The Guide. The Guardian. London. March 27, 1999. pp. 13–. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 30, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kristensen, Sverre H. (1994). "To HelL.A. and Back with Nick Bougas". Sewer Cunt. Vol. 1, no. 1. Copenhagen. pp. 34–35, 42.
  6. 1 2 3 Heard, Alex (February 21, 1994). "Adolf Hitler Was Just the Beginning. Art to Die For". The New Republic. Vol. 210, no. 8. Washington, D.C. pp. 20–23. ISSN 0028-6583.
  7. ↑ Brottman, Mikita (1995). "Carnivalising the Taboo". CineAction. No. 38. Toronto. pp. 25–37. ISSN 0826-9866.
  8. ↑ Prince, Stephen, ed. (2004). The Horror Film. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. pp. 172–186. ISBN 978-0-8135-3362-9.
  9. 1 2 Jackson, Neil; Kimber, Shaun; Walker, Johnny; Watson, Thomas Joseph, eds. (2016). Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-62892-112-0.
  10. ↑ Kerekes, David; Slater, David (2016). Killing for Culture: From Edison to ISIS: A New History of Death on Film. London: Headpress. ISBN 978-1-909394-35-3.
  11. ↑ Milligen, Stephen (2006). Better to Reign in Hell: Serial Killers, Media Panics and the FBI. London: Headpress. p. 177. ISBN 978-1-900486-53-8.
  12. ↑ Kerekes, David; Slater, David (1995). Killing for Culture. London: Creation Books. pp. 160, 206–208. ISBN 978-1-871592-20-7.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. New York: Routledge. pp. 138, 142, 178, 220, 234. ISBN 978-0-429-20009-0.
  14. ↑ O'Hehir, Andrew (August 1999). "Still Crazy After All These Years". Us. No. 259. New York. pp. 54–59, 90, 92. ISSN 0147-510X.
  15. ↑ "Bougas, Nick". German National Library. Retrieved September 1, 2026.
  16. ↑ Drake, Temple; Kerekes, David, eds. (2004). Headpress Guide to the Counter Culture: A Sourcebook for Modern Readers. Manchester: Headpress. pp. 26, 52–53. ISBN 978-1-900486-35-4.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bernstein, Joseph (February 5, 2015). "The Surprisingly Mainstream History of the Internet's Favorite Anti-Semitic Image". BuzzFeed News. New York. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  18. ↑ Barton, Blanche (2014) [1990]. "Dance Macabre". The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton Szandor LaVey (Revised ed.). Port Townsend: Feral House. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-62731-002-4. Retrieved October 27, 2015 – via Google Books.
  19. ↑ Lewis, James R. (2001). Satanism Today: An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore, and Popular Culture. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-57607-292-9.
  20. ↑ Boulware, Jack (November 19, 1997). "Slap Shots". SF Weekly. San Francisco. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  21. ↑ Hanson, Harry James; Antheus, Devin (2022). "The Goddess Bunny". Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age. New York: Abrams Books. ISBN 978-1-64700-508-5.
  22. ↑ Campos, Eric (October 29, 2005). "Death in Hollywood / When the Applause Died (DVD)". Film Threat. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
  23. ↑ Craddock, James M., ed. (1999). The Video Source Book (23rd ed.). Detroit: The Gale Group. p. 654, 2878, 3495. ISBN 978-0-7876-3408-7.
  24. ↑ Murray, Raymond (1994). Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. Philadelphia: TLA Publications. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-880707-01-2.
  25. ↑ Willman, Chris (March 12, 1999). "True Colors". Entertainment Weekly. No. 476. New York. p. 68. ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved August 31, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Weird Record of the Month". CMJ New Music Monthly. No. 61. New York. September 1998. p. 13. ISSN 1074-6978. Retrieved May 5, 2020 – via Google Books.
  27. ↑ Pearson, Paul. "Celebrities… at Their Worst!". AllMusic. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  28. ↑ Strauss, Neil (January 14, 1998). "The Pop Life: Uncovering Good Music That Few Got to Hear". The New York Times. p. E1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
  29. ↑ Miller, Martin (January 3, 1999). "Bits 'n' Pieces: Big Hissy Fits of the Rich and Famous". Los Angeles Times. p. E2. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved August 30, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ↑ Strauss, Neil (January 13, 2000). "The Pop Life; Favorite CD's You Nearly Missed". The New York Times. p. E5. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
  31. ↑ Segal, David (April 16, 2000). "The Oddity Bin: Where the Weird Gets Reviewed". The Washington Post. p. 11. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved August 31, 2026.
  32. 1 2 Malice, Michael (2019). The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-250-15467-5. Retrieved February 18, 2020 – via Google Books.
  33. ↑ Ward, Justin (April 19, 2018). "Day of the Trope: White Nationalist Memes Thrive on Reddit's r/The_Donald". Hatewatch. Montgomery: Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  34. ↑ "The Happy Merchant". Anti-Defamation League. New York. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  35. ↑ Ellis, Emma Grey (June 19, 2017). "The Alt-Right Found Its Favorite Cartoonist—and Almost Ruined His Life". Wired. San Francisco. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  36. ↑ Konda, Thomas Milan (2019). Conspiracies of Conspiracies: How Delusions Have Overrun America. University of Chicago Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-226-58576-5.
  37. ↑ "A Candidate for the Order". Google Books. Retrieved August 30, 2026.
  38. ↑ "Nicholas Arthur Bougas". Leaf Cremation. Acworth. Archived from the original on August 25, 2026. Retrieved August 25, 2026.
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