Synopses & Reviews
Suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the out-set that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable) but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back.
As we inhabit the heads of several key characters some kids who have it, some who don't, some who are about to get it what unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it, or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape.
And then the murders start.
As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it back when it wasnt exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird.
To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin...
Review
"This accomplished graphic novel is a serious work of artistic and literary merit and is essential for any collection..." School Library Journal
Review
"As always, Burns' gorgeous high-contrast art deepens the atmospheric darkness, and this time he really gets under the skin." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"What [Burns] does so memorably...is blend the erotic and the frightening to create a black hole the reader will want to visit again and again." Boston Globe
Review
"In Black Hole, Burns's careers in the comics subculture and the wider world of pop culture merge for the most deeply felt work of his career." Washington Post
Review
"In Black Hole, [Burns's] work takes on a new hyperrealism, which paradoxically only makes the story more frightening." San Antonio Express-News
Synopsis
"The best graphic novel of the year" (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation--the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways--from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)--but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back.
As we inhabit the heads of several key characters--some kids who have it, some who don't, some who are about to get it--what unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it, or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself.
And then the murders start.
As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it--back when it wasn't exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird.
To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin...
Synopsis
From one of the most fiercely admired graphic artists at work today comes a gothic masterpiece of existential fear and loathing, more than a decade in the making and already being hailed as a classic. Set in suburban Seattle in the mid-1970s, it is a horror tale unlike any other.
Synopsis
SG
About the Author
Charles Burns grew up in Seattle in the 1970s. Hs work rose to prominence in Art Spiegelman's Raw magazine in the mid-1980s and took off from there, for an extraordinary range of comics and projects, from Iggy Pop album covers to the latest ad campaign for Altoids. In 1992 he designed the set for Mark Morris's delightful restaging of The Nutcracker (renamed The Hard Nut) at BAM. He's illustrated covers for Time, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine. He was also tapped as the official cover artist for the Believer magazine at its inception in 2003. Burns lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.