By: Charles Burns Publisher: Pantheon Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Pantheon Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: October 18, 2005 Release Date: October 18, 2005
Product Description: 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 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…
Amazon.com Review: The first issues of Charles Burns's comics series Black Hole began appearing in 1995, and long before it was completed a decade later, readers and fellow artists were speaking of it in tones of awe and comparing it to recent classics of the form like Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan and Daniel Clowes's Ghost World. Burns is the sort of meticulous, uncompromising artist whom other artists speak of with envy and reverence, and we asked Ware and Clowes to comment on their admiration for Black Hole:
"I think I probably learned the most about clarity, composition, and efficiency from looking at Charles's pages spread out on my drawing table than from anyone's; his was always at the level of lucidity of Nancy, but with this odd, metallic tinge to it that left you feeling very unsettled, especially if you were an aspiring cartoonist, because it was clear you'd never be half as good as he was. There's an almost metaphysical intensity to his pinprick-like inkline that catches you somewhere in the back of the throat, a paper-thin blade of a fine jeweler's saw tracing the outline of these thick, clay-like human figures that somehow seem to "move," but are also inevitably oddly frozen in eternal, awkward poses ... it's an unlikely combination of feelings, and it all adds up to something unmistakably his own.
"I must have been one of the first customers to arrive at the comic shop when I heard the first issue of Black Hole was out 10 years ago, and my excitement didn't change over the years as he completed it. I don't think I've ever read anything that better captures the details, feelings, anxieties, smells, and cringing horror of my own teenage years better than Black Hole, and I'm 15 years younger than Charles is. Black Hole is so redolently affecting one almost has to put the book down for air every once in a while. By the book's end, one ends up feeling so deeply for the main character it's all one can do not to turn the book over and start reading again." --Chris Ware
"Charles Burns is one of the greats of modern comics. His comics are beautiful on so many levels. Somehow he has managed to capture the essential electricity of comic-book pop-art iconography, dragging it from the clutches of Fine Art back to the service of his perfect, precise-but-elusive narratives in a way that is both universal in its instant appeal and deeply personal." --Dan Clowes
Questions for Charles Burns
Amazon.com: Cartoonists are about the only people today who are working like Dickens did: writing serials that appear piece-by-piece in public before the whole work is done. What's it like to work in public like that, and for as long as a project like this takes? Charles Burns: There were a number of reasons for serializing Black Hole. First of all, I wanted to put out a traditional comic book-- I'd never really worked in that comic pamphlet format before and liked the idea of developing a long story in installments. There's something very satisfying to me about a comic book as an object and I enjoyed using that format to slowly build my story. Serializing the story also allowed me to focus on shorter, more manageable portions; if I had to face creating a 368-page book all in one big lump, I don't know if I’d have the perseverance and energy to pull it off. Amazon.com: One thing that stuns me about this book is how consistent it is from start to finish. From the first frames to the last ones that you drew 10 years later, you held the same tone and style. It feels as though you had a complete vision for the book from the very beginning. Is that so? Or did things develop unexpectedly as you worked on it? Burns: I guess there's a consistency in Black Hole because of the way I work. I write and draw very slowly, always carefully examining every little detail to make sure it all fits together the way I want it to. When I started the story, I had it all charted out as far as the basic structure goes, but what made working on it interesting was finding new ways of telling the story that hadn't occurred to me. Amazon.com: Some of the very best of the recent graphic novels (I'm thinking of Ghost World and Blankets, along with Black Hole) have been about the lives of teenagers. Do you think there's something about the form that helps to tell those stories so well? Burns: That's an interesting question, but I don't know the answer. Perhaps it has more to do with the authors--the kind of people who stay indoors for hours on end in total solitude working away on their heartfelt stories... maybe that kind of reflection lends itself to being able to capture the intensity of adolescence. Amazon.com: In the time you've been working on Black Hole, graphic novels have leapt into the mainstream. (I think--I hope--we're finally seeing the last of those "They're not just for kids anymore!" reviews.) What did you imagine for this project when you started it? What's it been like to see your corner of the world enter the glare of the spotlight? Burns: When I started Black Hole I really just wanted to tell a long, well-written story. The themes and ideas that run throughout the book had been turning around in my head for years and I wanted to finally get them all out--put them down on paper once and for all. I've published a few other books and while they sold reasonably well, they didn't set the publishing world on fire. I was pretty sure I'd have some kind of an audience for Black Hole, but that was never a motivating factor in writing the book. And my corner of the world is still pretty dark. I guess I'll be stepping into the spotlight for a little while when the book comes out, but I imagine I'll slip back into my dark little studio when it all settles down again so I can settle back into work.
A great introduction to graphic novels This was the second graphic novel that I ever read, the first was the book version of The Originals. I am not into manga or anime, but I decided that I should give this genre a try.
I really enjoyed Black Hole. It is a thinly veiled commentary on how people who are different are outcasts. He used the freakish nature of the disease to get our interest, but it is actually a parable for what goes on in our society everyday. The illustration style is captivating and engaging.
Since reading Black Hole, I have gone on to read other graphic novels. It was a great place to start.
Look again at the one "happy" ending A word to the few people that said that the ending for one of the main characters was "happy" and therefore weak. Don't you see, people? That sweet, naive character is delusional! Do you really think his plan is going to work out, especially given the situation that will be attributed to him at the place he was housesitting? Burns is just capturing that crushingly poignant moment of irrational hope before the inevitable doom that awaits (which he satisfyingly leaves to your imagination to fill in). There is no escape, no relief, no redemption... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA... :-)
The terror of teenage years. Black Hole is one of the more unsettling reads in the graphic novel world.
You might know Burns' work from that Iggy Pop album cover he did. It's kind of hard to miss, particularly in Black Hole where colour is saved for the covers, and nowhere else.
The run - gathered together here (more or less) tells the story of a 1970s STD. Not a regular STD, Dazed And Confused-style thing, but a complete mutative disorder. Through the use of the bug, as several characters call it, Burns highlights the unique terror of being an ugly teenager, and feeds it steroids.
It's difficult to say exactly why this work is so affecting. The starkness and almost stock-imagery feel of the art is a reason, I suppose; its precision allows no room for misinterpretation when you see some of the deformities some of the characters are afflicted with. But it's more than that; Burns focuses on something that's rotten within the concept of the teenager, with the world itself.
This is one you'll really have to read to understand. Sure, a lot of people won't like it, or won't see the big deal about it. But I'd urge you to look harder; like a Chambers or Lovecraft tale, there's a truly gargantuan horror lurking behind Black Hole, just out of sight.
The story is lacking. Black Hole was brought to my attention on a GQ article 20 Best Graphic Novels to read. I purchased three GN books-Black Hole, Y:The Last Man (Mediocre, 2 stars), and The Nightly News (5 star+, groundbreaking. Definitely the GN to get). The main pro of Black Hole is the artwork. The book is aesthetically beautiful inside and out. The black and white art of Charles Burns is highly stylized and a big step forward for comic and graphic novel art development. It is a large book at 368 pages, but a quick two to three day read. My main reason for not liking the book is the weak, uninteresting story and the aimlessness of it. The four main characters relationships with each other are well developed with interesting interaction and emotional tension between them, and the story creates a interesting morbid tension (ala Donny Darko), but this wans't enough for me, and unfortunately it results in an anti-climactic ending where I felt cheated after putting the book down. There were a few times I had to push myself to read as it began to fell like simply a bunch of kids wandering aimlessly and why should I care. The story and characters reminded me of a 1986 movie, The Rivers Edge, the similarities being the teenage characters coming of age sex and recreational drug use, discontent with life and suburban hangin at the 7-eleven angst. But as The Rivers Edge's storyline became more interesting as it developed and the REdge's supporting characters actually contributed to the interest and development of the story, Black Hole's did not. The Black Hole's big story "twist" is kids mutate and grow tails or third eyes when they hump, yet this was not enough to keep me interested. I wont reveal the killer at the end, but it came out of left field, and not in a fall of my seat Keyser Soze way. More of in a thrown in way. All in all, I am not disappointed for purchasing the book mainly for the art alone, yet I would not recommend the book to friends.
Something so familiar, yet it feels so strange... I suppose I'm grateful to have stumbled upon this book now, as it's available all in one piece, as opposed to as the serials which were released over a 10-year time period. It would've been hard to wait that long to read more!
This book was recommended to me by a community interested in "disturbing books." How right they were, but in the best possible way. I've scarcely read anything that was so surreal, and yet still seemed so in touch and to perfectly describe the unbearable awkwardness and insecurity of being a teenager, with your hormones developing faster than your brain could keep up.
Everything in this book feels disturbingly familiar, and yet surprisingly alien, all at once, which is part of it's genius. While you feel so in touch with the characters, having experienced that awkwardness, that young love, and that desperate longing for sex, coupled with the intense fear of the consequences, everything seems just a tiny bit...off. Just far enough from reality, just surreal enough to keep you on your toes.
I would highly recommend this book, and am already trying to pass it on to friends to share the read. The book is overall very strong, and I did not find it predictable, pandering or even boring at any point, which is saying a lot. I will agree with some of the other reviews - the two biggest complaints would be that I absolutely wanted more, more of everything, and the fact that one storyline ends...in a way that feels mildly like trying too hard for a happy ending for someone, when you might not believe it could be.
Again, overall...I really recommend this book. If you're into graphic novels, if you liked Ghost World, or if you're just looking for something a bit disturbing, make the time to read it. You won't be sorry.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
Amazon.com: Cartoonists are about the only people today who are working like Dickens did: writing serials that appear piece-by-piece in public before the whole work is done. What's it like to work in public like that, and for as long as a project like this takes?
