Review by Sam O'beirn
Think back to your senior year in high school. Do you remember it? Were you one of the cool kids, or one of the silent outsiders just watching the world? Were you a freak? A geek? A jock? Did you have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend? Remember that last summer before being an adult reared it’s ugly head? Out in the woods, camping with friends, drinking and having a good time, maybe fumbling with someone you fell in lust with and discovering the eyes that they kept hidden growing out of their chest….
Maybe I’m jumping ahead of myself.
Black Hole, written and drawn by Charles Burns, and originally released by Fantagraphics, touches on that sometimes awkward and restless period of life between high school and real life, and then thrusts it headlong into the twilight zone. Set in suburban Seattle in the early 70’s during the time when “it just wasn’t cool to be a hippy anymore, but Bowie was still a little too weird”, Black Hole focuses around the lives of several kids who are a mix of the high school population. We watch them as they live their lives over the course of a summer, doing drugs, having sex, and living the best they can. Horror starts to creep into their lives as it’s discovered that there’s a virus going around that only effects kids that are sexually active. The people that catch it become horribly mutated. Some in ways that are concealable, and others that have to hide in the woods to hide the grotesque shapes they’ve become. We see real desperation in these kids, and real love for one another as they grow and try to come to terms with what’s happening in their lives.
Then the murders start..
Charles Burns has captured the feeling of isolation and self-loathing that came with being a teen perfectly in this book. The art style is black and white ink, and works with the story he’s telling in ways that are both touching and terrifying. A warning, this is not a book to be left laying around for the young ones to find. The scenes of nudity and sex, as well as the graphic violence in the book make it a mature read to be sure. The art, both amazing and horrific, is one of the draws of the book. It hypnotizes you, and draws you in closer than you really want to be to these people. This is a book that tugs at the heartstrings, while ripping out the jugular.
(Graphic Novel Published by Pantheon Books)
9/10