Black Hole
Published by: Pantheon – 2005
Written and Illustrated by: Charles Burns
Black Hole by Charles Burns is a naturalistic narrative—tinged with elements of the “body-horror” genre—about growing up, the insecurities, uncertainties, and dramas of life as an American teenager, and the dangers of unprotected sex—specifically, running the risk of mass deformity from a disease referred to as “the bug” which seems supernatural in the way it deforms its victims. The tone of the art—with its hard blacks and stark whites—lends drama to even the lulls in the narrative and heightens the feeling of the supernatural and the spooky.
Originally serialized by Fantagraphics starting in 1995 and concluding in 2004—and subsequently collected in a single volume by Pantheon in 2005—Black Hole focuses on three teenagers and their friends and acquaintances struggling with the ramifications of unrequited love, true love, lost love, and “the bug.”
Instead of the sexually transmitted diseases we all know and love, “the bug” mutates the infected into grotesques whom end up covered in boils, or grow a superfluous second mouth or tail, or periodically shed their skin, or worse. Some whom contract “the bug” have established a camp in the woods outside of town, while those whom can conceal their mutations attempt to lead as normal a life as possible.
The obvious corollary is that Black Hole is a fable about the dangers of unprotected sex, but “the bug” is treated more like an inescapable plague that affects chosen people without warning—despite being a well-known risk—and the irresponsibility of those whom contract and spread “the bug” is not stressed despite being evident to the audience. This is not to suggest that a victim contracting an STD should be blamed—the heat of the moment is sometimes compelling and placing one’s trust in someone whom fails that trust is a tragedy—but when you’re going to bed with someone whom has as obvious of a symptom as a foot-long tail, one bears some responsibility.
The art of Black Hole is a major strength. Burns’ balance of realism and cartooning and dramatic use of lighting enhance the reading experience, immersing the reader in the world of the story and setting a specific tone and mood.
Burns is proof that good inking is an art-form in itself and not just “tracing”—a skill which sadly may be lost in the age of computers. Burns manages to so perfectly contour and taper his lines, and ubiquitous hatching, that they appear as though impossible by the human hand alone and so time-consuming that it’s a miracle he was ever able to produce such a lengthy piece of narrative art singlehandedly.
Black Hole is definitely a “mature audiences only” book. The full-frontal nudity is pervasive and sex is a major theme. Were it a movie, it would be realistic to expect at least a “hard” R-rating—or even an NC-17 rating depending on the composition and disposition of the ratings board assigned to rate the movie on that particular day. Despite this, Black Hole is far from pornographic. Ratings boards seem to forget that sex and nudity are a part of life—often starting in high school—so, as much as they may desire to sanitize the media diets of young people, the lives of those young people often outmatch what they see or hear from movies, television, and music—thus it reads as realism rather than sensationalism.
To avoid spoilers, not much can be said of the ending except that it is pregnant with possibilities but may be an unsatisfying resolution for some readers. It should be noted, however, that the original serialized issues feature pages which were omitted from the collected edition that re-contextualize certain plot elements. These pages drastically change the stakes the characters face. The removal of those pages also largely removes the likelihood of an unequivocal happy ending or the reinstatement of the status quo that the characters began the narrative with.
Recommendations:
Fans of Black Hole might also enjoy the graphic novels Bumperhead and Julio’s Day by Gilbert Hernandez whom is best known for his work with his brothers Jamie and Mario on the comic Love and Rockets. Julio’s Day chronicles the one-hundred-year life of its namesake from his birth in 1900 to his death in 2000. Bumperhead is about a young man growing into adulthood, told through cultural trends, especially those related to music—as music comes to define, enhance, and encapsulate adolescent life. Though Bumperhead is realistic, it does include one major anachronism: a character possesses an internet-connected iPad prior to the invention of the internet and uses it to look-up information relevant to the characters or plot. This misplacement of something modern into the 1970s and 80s is never addressed and treated as if it were natural to shuffle the historical order of things.
The Death Ray, David Boring, and Patience—all written and drawn by Daniel Clowes—are also recommended. The Death Ray and Patience explore superpowers and time-travel, respectively, but—at their core—remain about human relationships. David Boring is about the pursuit of the perfect woman by a mild-mannered man set against the backdrop of a looming war.
Another work by Burns worth taking a look at is the X-ed Out Trilogy published in three volumes (Sugar Skull, The Hive, and X-ed Out) starting in 2010 and completed in 2014.
Brian Bigelow
November 18, 2017
