Black Hole

"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...

Author: Charles Burns
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 10/18/2005
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.55lbs
Size: 9.44h x 6.92w x 1.50d
ISBN: 9780375423802


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/15/2005 pg. 48
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2005 pg. 765
Publishers Weekly 08/08/2005 pg. 218
Ingram Advance 10/01/2005 pg. 107
Entertainment Weekly 10/28/2005 pg. 94
Booklist 10/01/2005 pg. 44
Library Journal 01/01/2006 pg. 88
Entertainment Weekly 12/30/2005 pg. 153
Library Journal 01/15/2006
School Library Journal 03/01/2006 pg. 252

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.