Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Knivesout no more
Charles Burns' series of comics, begun in 1995, and finally complete, is now available in a handsome hardback collection.
Cumulatively, Black Hole might be one of the more impressive works of graphic art storytelling in recent times. Burns uses the forms and cliches of teenage horror flicks to tell a story about the real horrors and challenges of high-school life - the feeling of being torn between wanting to fit and wanting to be yourself, to say nothing of the whole messy, scary process of figuring what your self is.
The story-hook Burns uses to peg these themes on is a bug. A bug that is passed from one teenager to another through sexual contact. The bug makes its victims mutate in unexpected ways - one boy gowns a second mouth on his chest, a girl develops a lizard-like tail, and so on. While some victims are able to conceal their deformity for a whilel, others are so hideously transformed that they take to living in the woods near town, in ramshackle thrown-together tents and shacks.
The story follows the fates of various teenagers - som einfected, some clean, some soon-to-be-infected. The mix of realistic detail and horrific context is underscored by Burns' precise yet dreamlike black and white art. The imagery in the comic is powerful and iconic, providing much foreshadowing and cross-referencing.
The story itself is perhaps not utterly original, but it is gripping and eventually moving. This is a comic that repays repeat reads as well. Have any of you read this? Comments?
