Hillary Chute and Ed Park have been named comics and graphic novels columnists for The New York Times Book Review. Read more in this note from Pamela Paul, David Kelly and Gal Beckerman:

We are thrilled to announce a new monthly column in the Book Review devoted to the world of graphic novels and comics. And rather than sign on just one critic to write about this dynamic and important format — in both adult and children’s books — we’re bringing on on two. Both Hillary Chute and Ed Park have the authority, critical and curatorial eye, and a true love of the material to write about everything from Black Panther to Raina Telgemeier to Chris Ware. They will be writing in alternating months.

“This column will allow us to treat comics and graphic novels for what they are, some of the most creative and richly rewarding books being published today,” said Gal Beckerman, an editor at the Book Review. “And these two critics, each coming from different directions but both fantastic writers with a deep knowledge about comics, will introduce us to new work and new authors as well as the latest from more established ones, and explore them with the seriousness they deserve.”

Hillary Chute is the author of, most recently, “Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere” (reviewed on the cover of the Book Review last fall). She has written about comics for publications including Bookforum, The New York Review Daily, Poetry and The Village Voice. Her other books are “Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics and Documentary Form,” “Outside the Box: Interviews with Contemporary Cartoonists,” and “Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics.” She is currently a professor of English, and art and design at Northeastern University. She has also taught at the University of Chicago and Harvard. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.

Ed Park is the author of the novel “Personal Days,” a founding editor of The Believer, and most recently was executive editor at Penguin Press. At the Poetry Foundation, he started the Poem as Comic Strip feature, and he’s written about the medium for the Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice, where he was literary editor. His writing has appeared in this paper, The New Yorker, Bookforum and elsewhere. A former judge of the graphic novel category for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, he recently wrote the foreword to the coming Chris Reynolds collection “The New World: Comics From Mauretania.” He lives in Manhattan.

The comics and graphic novels column will begin appearing in April.

— Pamela, David and Gal