Charles Burns’s Black Hole is a classic. Winner of multiple Harvey Awards, the Ignatz, the Eisners, and more, it’s not exactly an under-the-radar pick for your Halloween reading. But if you haven’t checked out Black Hole in a while, or somehow never read the book: October is your perfect chance to read this haunting, incredibly human tale.
The premise is relatively straightforward, at least on paper. An STD travels from teen to teen and causes horrible mutations in 1970s Seattle. It’s both a curse and a badge of pride: after all, you’ve had sex, even if it caused strange, terrible things to happen to your body. But that’s when someone starts killing the teens in horrible ways.
While there are pervasive moments of horror in Black Hole, due to the graphic killings and horrific mutations, it’s much more focused on the uncomfortable idea of moving from being a teenager into adulthood. Burns jumps from character to character to paint a holistic picture of teendom in the ’70s, though really the same issues and trials are facing teens today (and will for years to come). Burns’s clean, thick lines and cartoonish characters are the draw, as the book veers away from reality into the surreal. But what will keep you revisiting Black Hole year after year is the humanity of the characters and the tragedy of the situation… A tragedy that is universally known as growing up.
The book was originally published in single issues, but you can pick up a collected edition from Pantheon, and it’s well worth the money. This is a classic graphic novel that, per the name of the publisher, is in the pantheon of the greats. You’ll want it on your bookshelf next to Maus, Fun Home, and the rest.
Bonus: Charles Burns’s most recent book, Final Cut is now in stores. And while it’s not quite at the level of Black Hole, it does extend some of those themes through the lens of making a horror movie. It’s complimentary to Black Hole, without feeling repetitive.
It’s spooky season, and you know what that means: time to curl up with a comic book or graphic novel that will scare your socks off. With that in mind, we’re posting a new horror book to check out every day of October, for our 31 Days Of Halloween Comics. Awoooo! Looking for the rest of our picks? Check them out on the Halloween tag.
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