Black Hole (Pantheon Graphic Library)

(W/A/CA) Charles Burns. by Charles Burns Suburban Seattle* the mid-1970s. A strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers* transmitted by sexual contact* that manifests in any number of ways from the hideously grotesque to the subtle and concealable. What unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague* or bring heightened awareness to it* or even to treat it. Instead* Black Hole paints a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself the savagery* the cruelty* the relentless anxiety and ennui* the longing for escape. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying* Black Hole deftly explores a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it.