10 Biggest Comics Controversies Of 2017

This series caused controversy twice in pretty quick succession earlier this year.

Howard Chaykin's creator owned work, The Divided States of Hysteria, was published by Image Comics and immediately caused a stir.

Containing yet another example of a trans character facing extreme sexual violence, something which Chaykin has a history of including in his work too, Image saw a great deal of online backlash for the fact that such content had been wrapped in one of their Pride Month variants. Many took issue with the fact that this damaging media trope of trans representation had the audacity to be wrapped within a cover purporting to show Image's commitment to LGBTQ rights and history.

However, Image stood its ground and behind Chaykin, using Chaykin's own essay on the comic (that was printed within the first issue anyway) as a statement on the backlash, and stating that they do not believe in censorship.

However, mere weeks later, Chaykin and the comic became a hot topic of conversation again, as solicits showed the then future cover for the series' third issue, which featured a person of colour lynched and castrated in the street with a racial slur daubed over his body.

This time, the backlash was louder than ever, and ultimately saw Image releasing what it called a 'joint' apology between themselves and Chaykin and the decision to change the cover.

However, in an interview with a site days later, Chaykin revealed that he was not part of this apology, and in fact felt he had nothing to apologise for at all, and suggested that the critics, fans and fellow creators speaking out were being shrill alarmists and more, ultimately offending a swathe of people.