Black Hole (comics)

Black Hole
Trade paperback cover
Publication information
Publisher	Kitchen Sink Press/Fantagraphics
Format	Limited series
Publication date	1995–2005
Number of issues	12
Creative team
Writer(s)	Charles Burns
Artist(s)	Charles Burns
Collected editions
Paperback

Black Hole is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written and illustrated by Charles Burns and published first by Kitchen Sink Press and then Fantagraphics. It was released in collected form in 2005 by Pantheon Books.

The story deals with the aftermath of a sexually transmitted disease which causes grotesque mutations in teenagers.

It was published as a 12-issue comic book limited series between 1995 and 2005. The first four issues were released by Kitchen Sink Press; after Kitchen Sink went out of business, Fantagraphics republished the first four issues and the remaining eight. A compiled hardcover volume was released by Pantheon Books in 2005. This collected edition, however, lacks many pages that were included in the first publication- the ones that showed some characters' faces. These pages are considered by some critics to be essential.

Set in the suburbs of Seattle during the mid-1970s, the comics follow a group of mostly middle class teenagers who, over the summer, contract a mysterious sexually transmitted disease known as "the Bug" or "the teen plague," which causes them to develop bizarre unique physical mutations, turning them into social outcasts.

The story generally focuses on four central characters—Chris, Rob, Keith and Eliza—switching back and forth between their stories as they come in contact with and contract the disease. Apart from some introduction into the setting, the story starts off with Chris contracting the disease from Rob, a popular kid in school. Because of a failed attempt to warn her of his condition, Chris is not aware that Rob is infected until they are already having sex. Chris immediately feels she has been deceived and stops speaking to Rob for some time. Around the same time Keith contracts it from Eliza, a woman he meets while trying to buy cannabis at a friend's house. Although it is not made explicitly clear, Keith seems unaware that Eliza's mutation (a tail) is actually a disease that he can contract from her, although he never outwardly discusses the disease with Eliza, even after it has manifested within him.