Charles Burns is one of my favorite horror comic artists. Mainly because a superficial look at his artwork makes it looks nice and clean and…normal, for lack of a better word. Burns’ masterpiece is Black Hole, a story about a sexually transmitted disease. I first heard of Burns in the movie Comic Book Confidential (my review) and he had been serializing Black Hole for over a decade before putting together in one collection in 2005. So, what is Black Hole?

Imagine a Dazed and Confused comic book, only some weird guy started putting horrific dream sequences, guys with a second mouth on their neck and girls with tails (real tails). And the mutations are passed on via sex. The story is basically irrelevant, since it’s the atmosphere and horrific dream sequences that really drive the book and make the book so creepy.As an example:

Burns has put together a frog dissection from a high school biology class and tied it into sex and a person’s skin coming off (this skin is later found in the woods just outside a Dazed and Confused like party). You can see how clean and neat the art is, but the images are creepy and disturbing. The black and white art just add to the atmosphere and help bring it all together.

Black Hole is a nightmare version of your high school life and it’s damn creepy. If you’re into horror books, Black Hole is not to be missed. Highly recommended.