On the following page, Keith is also present again and looking up at the hallucinations. In the page following this one, Burns mashes together the images here and others into four more panels each of which are again connected by a swirling circle, except a bigger circle with more rings. The backdrop not only serves as a way to connect these images, it signifies clearly these images are in Keith’s mind. The image which connects all four panels on the bottom of the page is a black background with squiggly lines, as well as a circle similar to one a hypnotist might use. It is especially notable how Burns connects the four lower panels with Keith’s hallucinations while still maintaining negative space in the gutter spaces between each of them.
Keith’s state of consciousness and the context of the images are further reinforced by the image in the backdrop of the four lower panels on the page. These are the images Keith sees in response to the dissection of the frog. The final image in the last panel shows a hand covering genitalia.
#Black hole comic skin#
Following is another image with similar visual imagery except the slit is now in somebody’s skin like they are trying to tear out of it the person stands back on, and could either be male or female. The second image is of a foot also with a similarly shaped slit in its sole. The first is the frog dissected with a large slit in its belly. Below the top panel are four individual vertical panels each of which with their own image. This is when Keith is beginning to have some sort of attack before blacking out, which was brought on while dissecting a frog for a science class. To the side someone calls out his name, “Keith?”, as if he is unresponsive. At the top of the page, Keith’s appears nervous and sweaty, however, only his eyes and portions of his upper face are visible. The page itself is divided into five different panels. This page holds the key to some of the imagery Burns uses in Black Hole and alludes to both elements of plot, as well as theme. In particular, one page early in the comic depicts Keith while he attempts to dissect a frog at school, but hallucinates before going unconscious. This metaphor is further seen in the imagery Burns presents which he braids throughout the comic. While it serves as an interesting and horrifying story all on its own, Black Hole is a metaphor for the often bumpy ride through adolescence: everything from high school with all its own specific and unique problems to the discovery of sexual intercourse. This further spreads the sexually transmitted disease. Regardless of the warnings against sex and the strange new deformations they all see around town, the kids still continue to have sex with one another. The group of teens are all into drinking, smoking dope, and having sex, however, they are all seeing the new plague spread worse from one day to the next. There are many scenes typical of a coming of age story similar to those you might have also seen in films like Dazed and Confused or something newer like American Pie. Burns uses these images to continually reinforce his overall theme concerning the shared struggle of growing up and the difficult transition from an adolescent body into a strange new one.īurns’ comic tells the story of a group of teenagers in the 1970s living through an epidemic of an STD-like plague which turns those infected into mutants. Examination of the imagery Keith witnesses early on while hallucinating reveals a pattern emerging which continues through Black Hole. His hallucination serves as a moment of foreshadowing while also working in regards to the comic’s overall depictions of struggles with adolescence, the transformation all of the teenagers undergo following their sexual awakenings, and the obsession with sex including vaginal imagery braided through the comic. One teen named Keith dissects a frog during science class and while doing so experiences a hallucination before blacking out. The story switches between the perspectives of several teenagers in a small town, however, the imagery throughout is consistent from one character to the next. The Charles Burns comic Black Hole focuses on aspects concerning the coming of age adolescents face as they move from teenagers towards maturation, and the shared experiences most of them go through such as awkward social situations and sexual discovery. Black Hole: The Grotesque Imagery of Sex and Adolescence