CHAZAN | Five Frighteningly Fantastic Horror Comics

Halloween’s just around the corner, and most of you are enjoying your annual reminder that you actually enjoy the horror genre. However, if you’re anything like me you know that horror is truly a genre for all seasons — nothing really brings catharsis quite so viscerally as a good scare. The artists and publishers of comics have been aware of the fascination horror provokes for as long as the medium has existed as an industry — horror and crime were once the two most popular genres in North American comic books until the rampant censorship laws of the 1950s quashed the flourishing scene (more on that another day). However, outside the United States the nightmare never ended, with some spectacular spooky stories coming out of countries like Japan and France, and by the 1980s North American horror comics had a comeback with titles like Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and the early issues of Chester Brown’s Yummy Fur providing deeply personal takes on the body horror found in films like The Thing. It seems now that the monster hiding under the bed is here to stay, so here are a few favorites of mine to read with lights on.

CHAZAN | How to Shop at a Comic Store

Maybe you were assigned Persepolis in high school and were inspired. Maybe you took out dozens of manga volumes at a time at your local library. Maybe you’ve seen all the Avengers movies and want to read the source materials. Maybe you’re just curious. Whatever it is, dear hypothetical reader, you want to start going to a comic store but have never been to one before!

CHAZAN | Beyond the Big Two: Four Alternative Superhero Comics

I think it was Scott McCloud who once compared superhero comics to cake: a delicious treat, but perhaps not the basis of a healthy, balanced diet. In a medium artificially saturated with capes and tights, it can be easy to forget how sweet these stories can be — many of the finest, most bombastically enjoyable comics ever made have been in this very genre, along with some of the dreariest garbage imaginable. It certainly does not help that the vast majority of books published by Marvel and DC, the so-called “big two” who have made superstuff their bread and butter, are bland-to-unreadable exercises in corporate IP. But there’s more to life than continuity. Here are a few super-powered, super-artistic titles you can simply enjoy.

GUEST ROOM | Six Women Cartoonists You Should Know About

This article was originally going to be about sexism in the comics industry. It’s no secret that the comics scene has done a notoriously poor job recognizing women creators and readers, particularly in America’s superhero-choked testosterone-fest. This was no clearer than at this year’s Angouleme Grand Prix, a sort of Cannes Palme d’Or for the comics world, when none of a whopping 20 creators nominated were women. This resulted in a major fracas among smarter members of the community, resulting in boycotts from attendees and nominees alike and the hashtag #womendoBD (short for bandes desinees, the French word for comics), predating #OscarsSoWhite’s highlighting of award show prejudice by over a month. However, when I described the premise of my article exploring this heady topic to my peers, I generally got the same response: Are there even that many major cartoonists who are women?