Peppermint Werewolf'.
Aaron Lange is an author and visual artist living in the American Midwest. His credits include numerous zines and mini-comics, the long-form nonfiction graphic novel 'Ain't It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City' (2023) and 'Peppermint Werewolf' (2022- ), an ongoing experimental comix art project. His work has also appeared in publications such as Mineshaft, Hustler and Cinema Sewer. Often associated with the international Neo-Decadent art movement, his work explores ideas related to autobiography, psychogeography, eroticism, countercultures, and the occult.
Early life
Aaron Lange was born in 1981 in Cleveland, Ohio, as the son of a banker. His mother went to work as a church secretary after divorcing Lange's father, while his sister has worked for a non-profit organization which helps children. His younger brother is a blogger specialized in video games, and also makes "guerrilla videos". Aaron also took a more alternative route. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Columbus College of Art & Design, already attracting attention with his transgressive illustrations. He grew up reading superhero comics, but later turned to alternative artists like Rick Altergott, Dan Clowes and Robert Crumb, who served as influences on his own work. It took a while before he actually made his debut. He first worked odd jobs in a bookstore, a record store, a gay video store, a printing factory, a restaurant kitchen and a bar.
'Romp', 'Trim'.
Romp & Trim
Since 2011, Lange has regularly published comix through Dexter Cockburn's The Comix Company from Vancouver, Canada. His work generally explores the sleazier sides of life, focusing on themes of physical and spiritual decay and consumerism, all in a politically incorrect and direct presentation. At the time, he took great inspiration in his post-industrial Philadelphia surroundings, where the artist resided for a while because it is a "grungy, drug-infested, racist, violent shit-hole".
Comic strip by Aaron Lange.
His first series, 'Romp' (2011-2012), was a pornographic satire of gender constructs and human sexuality. It was followed by his annual one-man anthology series 'Trim' (2013- ), which collects shorter black-and-white stories about the fringes of society in the back alleys. The series mixes autobiographical stories, short gags and biographical portraits of countercultural figures like Damien Hirst, Georges Bataille, William S. Burroughs, Peter Laughner, Zoe Lund and Slavoj Zizek, among other things. In addition, he has released the special editions 'The Worst of Trim' (2022) and 'The Best of Trim' (2023).
'Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave' (2024).
Graphic novels
Lange eventually returned to his hometown, which he has described as "the declining rustbelt wasteland known as Cleveland". There, he co-founded the Stone Church Press imprint with fellow creator Jake Kelly in 2022, followed in 2025 by his own home-operated imprint Church Ghost. Through Stone Church, he began his ongoing experimental comix art project 'Peppermint Werewolf', an avant-garde and non-linear exploration of "the depths of the subconscious" and "myriad perversions from antiquity to the internet age and beyond", often through a pornographic lens. After the 2022 art book 'Peppermint Werewolf' came the follow-up 'Peppermint Werewolf: Murkstave' (2024).
In between, Lange released his first full-length graphic novel, 'Ain't It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City' (2023). A deeply researched biography, the book explored the short life of Cleveland punk pioneer Peter Laughner (1952-1977), as well as the cultural, environmental and societal factors that shaped the Midwestern proto-punk subculture he championed. Laughner performed in Rocket From the Tombs, a band that also featured several members who later regrouped into the longer-running avant garde rock band Pere Ubu, including lead singer David Thomas.
'Ain't It Fun: Peter Laughner & Proto-Punk in the Secret City' (2023).
Other publications
Apart from his own titles, Lange's work has frequently appeared in the international arts magazine Mineshaft. Lange's film and cultural criticism have appeared in Robin Bougie's zine Cinema Sewer, and his cartoons and illustrations in Hustler, Smoke Signal and many small press publications, as well as on skateboard decks, and in self-published pamphlets left behind in bus terminals. He was also featured in the anthology 'The Best American Comics 2018' (Mariner Books, 2018), edited by Bill Kartalopoulos.
Recognition
Aaron Lange's work has received praise from underground comix legend Robert Crumb, with whom he corresponds on a regular basis, and who called him "unquestionably the king of politically incorrect comics". So far, he has however only been awarded for his photography: a second place position in the 18th Brutal Architecture competition (2025), in the category of "Brutalist Sculptures, Forms & Features."
Cover of 'The Worst of Trim', with self-portrait.