This story first published in The Northside Chronicle.
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.”
Family has long been a source of inspiration and drive for Hanczar’s art. He first got interested in comics as a kid when his grandfather would cut out particularly funny newspaper comic strips and hang them on his fridge.
Hanczar said this inspired him to attempt to make his own funny drawings and hit it big by “making it to the fridge.”
Now, Hanczar still feels a swell of pride whenever he sees one of his comics clipped out somewhere or hears that people got a chuckle out of it.
“Yinzburgh!” comics have touched on numerous topics over the years, whether they be Pittsburgh sports, the invasion of spotted lanternflies, observations of holidays or motivational pieces.
Hanczar said he tries to “catch the vibe” of what’s going on in his neighborhood and the city as a whole.
The process to complete a “Yinzburgh!’ comic can be highly varied. Sometimes an idea comes naturally to Hanczar for any given month. Other times, when nothing obvious presents itself, he delves into his file folder of various sketches, searching for one that he could complete. This means that sometimes the time between when a sketch was first started and when it was completed for “Yinzburgh!” can be a matter of years.
Hanczar likes to keep things old-fashioned with how he makes his drawings. Instead of using a tablet and drawing program or app, he draws all of his comics with paper and pencil, then finishes by hand inking them. Each comic is then scanned and, after a little bit of digital cleanup, is sent off to The Chronicle for publication.
While perhaps best known by Chronicle readers through “Yinzburgh!,” Hanczar has made other illustrations, including longer form comics and books. He’s even responsible for a mural of Pittsburgh baseball player Honus Wagner on the side of American Legion Post 82 in Carnegie. Wagner’s baseball card is one of the most expensive in history, selling for more than $6 million in 2021.
Yet through it all, he’s stuck with The Chronicle, and with good reason. “Making that newspaper comic, and often one that’s single panel, that’s always been a puzzle that I like to draw,” he said.
“I’m proud to be part of The Chronicle and I think having neighborhood newspapers, let alone local newspapers, is beyond important,” he later said.
Past “Yinzburgh!” comics can be viewed online at thenorthsidechronicle.com and on the newspaper’s electronic edition archive.
This Northside Chronicle story is one in a series on Western Pennsylvania doers from a partnership of about 30 regional newsrooms as part of an inaugural Newsapalooza event, Sept. 27-28. The collaborative series demonstrates the power of a story when networked through an entire community. Read more on the event and buy tickets at newsapalooza.org.
Others in the series:
Rondón, Velázquez foster community, diversity and economic development
for Latinos in Pittsburgh (from Pittsburgh Latino Magazine)
Community leader’s cancer fight gave him strength (from Latrobe Bulletin)
Laura Magone’s Wedding Cookie Table community: A labor of love (from the Mon Valley Independent)
New Castle native sows seeds of knowledge, positivity (from the New Castle News)
Faces of the Valley: Volunteering and firefighting is family affair for Lower Burrell woman (from TribLive.com)
She came back a different person to help people and live well (from Soul Pitt Quarterly)
A Joe of all trades helps his North Side neighbors (from YaJagoff!)
Pittsburgh environmental activist’s ‘sustainability salons’ foster community (from The Allegheny Front)
A Penn Hills candy factory is making life sweeter for folks on the autism spectrum(from Pittsburgh Magazine)
‘Give Back King’: Go-getter Jamal Woodson a leader on and off the court (from Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Sean P. Ray
Sean is the managing editor of The Northside Chronicle, the community newspaper for Pittsburgh's Northside neighborhoods. He can be reached at editor@thenorthsidechronicle.com.