- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Pantheon Books (18 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 037542380X
- ISBN-13: 978-0375423802
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 4.1 x 24.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,535,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
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…
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…
From the Publisher
It's here: Charles Burns' epic story of existential horror, over ten years in the making. Yet another Cape graphic novel milestone.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Set amongst high school students in a fictional mid-70s Seattle, this is a compelling and horrific graphic novel about urban alienation, teenage despair and the ways in which fear can spread through a community.
Charles Burns uses the metaphor of plague - a mysterious, AIDS-like illness which spreads through sexual contact, with horrifying results. The changes contagion brings are individual - often seeming to echo the carrier's own fears or hidden traits. One boy develops a second mouth which always tells the truth; an infected girl learns to shed her skin like a snake.
As with the shapeshifting feats of traditional comicbook superheroes, it's unclear whether catching the bug is a curse or a blessing in disguise. New powers accompany the loss of normality, although the consequences vary according to the character's moral integrity. There's a Freudian dimension to all this, too; sometimes the transformations of the disease are nightmare echoes of the physical changes of adolescence, the fears of infection a kind of amplified sexual neurosis.
Against the weight of all this metaphor, the sub-plot involving a series of murders almost seems extraneous. Nevertheless, this is a good buy: originally serialised in twelve parts and appearing over the course of a decade, this new edition brings the entire story together along with Burns' darkly beautiful black-and-white illustrations.
Charles Burns uses the metaphor of plague - a mysterious, AIDS-like illness which spreads through sexual contact, with horrifying results. The changes contagion brings are individual - often seeming to echo the carrier's own fears or hidden traits. One boy develops a second mouth which always tells the truth; an infected girl learns to shed her skin like a snake.
As with the shapeshifting feats of traditional comicbook superheroes, it's unclear whether catching the bug is a curse or a blessing in disguise. New powers accompany the loss of normality, although the consequences vary according to the character's moral integrity. There's a Freudian dimension to all this, too; sometimes the transformations of the disease are nightmare echoes of the physical changes of adolescence, the fears of infection a kind of amplified sexual neurosis.
Against the weight of all this metaphor, the sub-plot involving a series of murders almost seems extraneous. Nevertheless, this is a good buy: originally serialised in twelve parts and appearing over the course of a decade, this new edition brings the entire story together along with Burns' darkly beautiful black-and-white illustrations.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This has to be one of the greatest graphic novels of the past few years. If David Lynch did teen-drama this would be it. The alienation of teenage life taken to the max. Beautifully drawn, visually like nothing else around. Story of subtlety and eery atmosphere. This is a work of depth and sublime power. Totally recommended.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Black Hole is a book about adolescents in an American town, who suffer from a strange disease which causes mutations in their appearance. Instead of just making this a trite metaphor for puberty, Burns runs with the concept and makes it an important part of the world he creates where the characters run from home and go to live with hippies and drug dealers or camp out in the woods, afraid of the world they have run from.
I read Black Hole over two Spring evenings at the park. After the first half of the book I felt disappointed because it seemed like nothing especially interesting had happened and what had happened was too slow and unclear (several of the characters look similar). However, beyond the half way point, everything falls into place and the character focus becomes a bit sharper with you caring about the fates of certain people in the book and feeling angry about how they are treated. It may spend a while setting the scene, but when the plot gets going and the character relationships develop, it becomes a fascinating work and impossible to put down. I particularly like the way that violence is for a long time absent from the story then strikes suddenly and shockingly.
I do feel that the book could have been edited down and better presented. Although the art style is nice-looking and Burns is highly skilled at facial expressions and body language, I did feel at times it was generic and inarticulate - there were only very few points in the book where I felt compelled to stop my flow and step back to admire the composition of a scene. The overall atmosphere that the style creates is powerful though, with a concentration of black which makes you feel at times that it's not black ink on a white page, but white struggling to partition the depth of darkness - particularly menacing and effective in the scenes that take place in the woods.
Black Hole is a thrilling and intelligent work which may be a one-shot read but is a great read, nonetheless.
I read Black Hole over two Spring evenings at the park. After the first half of the book I felt disappointed because it seemed like nothing especially interesting had happened and what had happened was too slow and unclear (several of the characters look similar). However, beyond the half way point, everything falls into place and the character focus becomes a bit sharper with you caring about the fates of certain people in the book and feeling angry about how they are treated. It may spend a while setting the scene, but when the plot gets going and the character relationships develop, it becomes a fascinating work and impossible to put down. I particularly like the way that violence is for a long time absent from the story then strikes suddenly and shockingly.
I do feel that the book could have been edited down and better presented. Although the art style is nice-looking and Burns is highly skilled at facial expressions and body language, I did feel at times it was generic and inarticulate - there were only very few points in the book where I felt compelled to stop my flow and step back to admire the composition of a scene. The overall atmosphere that the style creates is powerful though, with a concentration of black which makes you feel at times that it's not black ink on a white page, but white struggling to partition the depth of darkness - particularly menacing and effective in the scenes that take place in the woods.
Black Hole is a thrilling and intelligent work which may be a one-shot read but is a great read, nonetheless.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disturbing, surreal, teen angst and tails
I was unfamiliar with the work of Charles Burns, well i was aware of Ghostworld but had no interest in reading it, but when I read the synopsis for Black Hole i had a feeling i... Read more
Published 17 days ago by G. S. Haynes
And the story starts?..
Visually, this book is jaw droppingly beautiful, and the relentless colouring and illustration really lends itself well to the eerie tone of the story. I think. Read more
Published 2 months ago by S. J. Lynch
Sex, drugs and... mutants
Sex, drugs and... mutants! my perfect book. The illustration is epic in beauty and detail and the story is awesome, i had to stop myself finishing it in one sitting! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ms. C. Savage
More serious than I thought.
I thought it was well written and it kept me interested all the way through, but when I read the initial plot before I bought the book I thought it might be in the dark comedy... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Geomonkey
Great
What else you want, great comic, but also in hardcover and for a very low price. I recomend it. Some people might dont know that this is a black and white comic, but believe me,... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Andrés
"... a lot of weird stuff has been going on lately..."
Suburban Seattle in the 1970s, just before the Bowie era, qv before the era when you could look like a boy if you were a girl and a girl if you were a boy: kids are doing what kids... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Eileen Shaw
Disturbing and inventive
A disturbing graphic novel working on two levels. On one level it's the mid 1970s in suburban Seattle and high school teenagers are doing what they always do, having sex,... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Jo Bennie
Awesome!
I've actually only started reading it, but I must say that this is incredible work. It's difficult to find really good comic novels,but this is one of those extraordinary pieces... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Milton Fontaine
Charles Burns' Black Hole
I couldn't accurately articulate just how good this book is. The art work is just sensational; the composition of each panel, the juxtaposition of serialist horror and humdrum... Read more
Published 23 months ago by J. P. Marsh
Teen body horror angst
Wow. What an accomplishment. As a fan of comics and Ghost world/dan Clowes etc, I'd flicked through this before and loved the art, then saw animated movie Fear(s) of the Dark and... Read more
Published on 8 Jan 2010 by Mr. Dan Petic
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