PREVIEW: Meet the man behind the 'Yinzburgh!' comics

By Sean P. Ray | Managing Editor

*Editor’s note: This story appears as part of Newsapalooza at Point Park University, Sept. 26-28  celebrating local journalism in southwestern Pennsylvania. This fun event brings the public together with 30 newsrooms, 20 civic sponsors and leading newsmakers. Tickets on sale now: nextgenerationnewsroom.org/newsapalooza

For more than a century, comics have been a staple part of newspapers, whether they be satirical political cartoons on an opinions page, or long-running comedic pieces such as “Peanuts” or “Calvin and Hobbes.”

While many such comics are syndicated across multiple newspapers nationally or even internationally, some newspapers have the good fortune of having their own artist to provide their readers with drawings more focused to the paper’s coverage area.

Such has been the case of The Northside Chronicle since 2008, when Nils Hanczar began providing comics for the paper. Now his “Yinzburgh!” comics, which are typically single-panel, are viewed by the thousands of readers of The Chronicle.

Despite the large audience, however, Hanczar initially wrote “Yinzburgh!” for a smaller crowd.

“My grandmother is a Northsider and she was still living when I started on the comics,” he said. “So basically I was making the comics for her and her friends.”

Check out the September issue of The Northside Chronicle for the full story.