Charles Burns’ BLACK HOLE is a graphic novel set in a Seattle suburb during the 70s. It follows a group of horny teenagers who contract an STD that basically turns them into mutants: they grow tails, they shed skins, some even grow second mouths. I decided to pick it up after listening to a pretty good hour long interview with Burns and Chris Ware. Since 1995, BLACK HOLE has been serialized in 12 installments, but having read none of them, I came to Burns’ work with fresh eyes: I’d only seen a small clip of BLACK HOLE in McSweeney’s 13, and his cover art for THE BELIEVER.
Reading it, I was reminded of John Neborak’s senior project presentation, in which he talked about the unique verbal/visual blend of comics as a narrative. Burns’ artwork is admirable, no doubt about it: his masterly brushwork is intricate and meticulous, and his command of black and white is great. However, when it comes to storyline, BLACK HOLE really falls flat for me. Mostly what you get from reading it is a sustained, creepy mood. Because the sexual metaphors that evoke this mood are purely visual (the vaginal gashes, the hot dogs roasting over an open fire), I’m wondering what BLACK HOLE would read like without any words.
I’d go on, but Meg sent me an e-mail that really summed it all up:
Graphic novels aren’t art and they aren’t a novel – they’re both, and too few graphic novelists (even the so-called “pros”) seem to get that. If either the art or the story aren’t really up to par it ends up detracting from the whole thing. I feel like so many graphic novels are written by men who are emotionally still teenagers in high school who get a big charge out of drawing scantily-clad women. Sometimes I just want to tell the authors to grow up a little. That’s what made a novel like FROM HELL so good, it rose above all that to tell an interesting story.
Couldn’t have said it any better myself. (And didn’t.)
Oh, hi! This is a topic I think I can comment on.
I think Ware (and Meghan) hit the juvenility part square on the head, but it’s certainly not limited to male artists — even the most innovative women cartoonists (Lynda Barry, Megan Kelso, Phoebe Gloeckner, Marjane Satrapi, Dori Seda, etc.) can be accused of wallowing in their teenage experiences to a ridiculous degree. To me, this is the biggest problem with comics; when even the
Now, I never read all of Black Hole but, yes, Burns is long on mood and short on plot. But, he’s always been — commenting that Black Hole lacks story is like commenting that Hitchcock relied too much on rear-projection in Psycho when he’d been doing it for decades. For Burns (and Ware), the formal and artistic innovation is what’s interesting, and I’m not terribly interested in “story” per se, nor do I think one should have to be.
From Hell works quite well, is probably my favorite long-form comic book, but is also extremely dissatisfying in that it is so plot-driven and linear (with significant diversions here and there, okay). Moore is the master of the layered, literary comic, but (to use another film analogy) that’s like enjoying a David Mamet film solely because of his cute turns of phrase.
Film has long been hampered because of the theatrical analogy — most people view films as necesssarily story-driven, with understandable characters, 3-act structures, and the like. Similarly, comics are often viewed as “stories with pictures” and judged on how well they match the depth of plot and characterization one can achieve in pure prose.
I think these are great starting points for media, but extremely limiting. I see Burns, Ware, and and a wide variety of others (John Porcellino, Dave McKean, Gary Panter, etc.) as attempting to draw upon other media (music, poetry, the visual arts, etc.) as inspirations for their work. Kubrick based the structure of 2001: A Space Odyssey on a symphonic analogy, and I welcome any attempt to find inspiration for comics that come from other places than the strictly textual.
Of course, this is all commenting on a book I haven’t read (in its entirety at least).
Oops, lost part of a sentence there. The first paragraph should end:
“To me, this is the biggest problem with comics; when even the alternative cartoonist fails to move beyond their comfort areas and use the medium for more wildly radical content.”
Those are all really great points–especially about the female cartoonists!