Ostensibly a story about a group of teens who are afflicted with an STD that manifests differently for each sufferer, the narrative evolves and presents the suffering of adolescence in a way that makes you sit up and take notice.
The dark heavy illustrations are rife with sexual imagery and phallic symbols are rampant (oh god, the puns are nearly impossible to avoid). Sex and life and death and change all swirl together in an overwhelming fog of angst and at the end, the reader emerges from the darkness blinking and shaken by the violence of the experience. Nearly every image can be interpreted as some type of sexual imag, from the disected frog with it's vaginal-esque slit-- complete with dripping fluids-- all the way through to the rock formation at the end-- the bright tunnel not unlike the exit of the birth canal, bright light becoming one into a "new" life. In so many ways, the book feels like an exploration of a Freudian mind where a cigar is never just a cigar.
Within the story, the allusions are so multi-layered that it's possible to stumble (and god, that's totally what re-reading feels like-- stumbling in the dark) new ideas and connections. Graphic matching is all over the place and the lack of numbered pages, in hindsight, is pretty effective in continuing that slightly off balance feeling the entire work evokes.
Originally published as a series that spanned ten years, the compilation of the entire story into a single volume lacks only a few things, and I feel like the choice to leave out the introductions from the individual issues leave the story bewilderingly open ended. In the sense of maintaining the confusion of the overall story, it makes sense, but I admit to being a little disappointed when I found them after searching around for more information about the series.
I agree with you, I think we lose a great deal of the story with compilations. After each issues there is editing and with a compilation often times parts are shortened or left out all together.
This TIME article makes some really good points, especially as it touches on the connection between the insanity of adolescence and the slasher phenomena where sex and violence meet in a morass of arousal and confusion and terror for everyone involved.
I had the strong feeling that in order to understand this comic I must be in a drug induced haze.
There is just so much going on through out the whole story, there is really no down side or reprieve.
However, Black Hole is by far my favorite comic of the semester! It was a quick read, but admittedly I had to read it twice. I felt like I was missing something.
The artistic element of this book is rendered wonderfully. Burns' use split images allowing you to see both character's reactions. I thought it was interesting how he wrote the way "the bug" affects each person differently and how it manifests itself. It is a great juxtaposition of the character's personality and there hidden fears. For example, the bug created a mouth on Rob's neck that spoke what I saw as only the truth. And Chris she shed her skin like a snake. This makes me think about all the negative connotations about snakes; they are evil and deceitful. I don't believe that Chris is evil or deceitful, but that she feels that way about herself.
The most disturbing and well perplexing part of the book was, what role did Davids killing spree play in the grand scheme of things? I kind of feel like that is how the Bug effected him; but if that is the case then it opens a whole new can of worms. It is my thinking that Dave was severely disturbed and the bug enabled his psychoses to fully manifest. Killing is apart of him, it defines who he is.
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