Black Hole by Charles Burns
"I must have been one of the first customers to arrive at the comic shop when I heard the first issue of Black Hole was out 10 years ago, and my excitement didn't change over the years as he completed it. I don't think I've ever read anything that better captures the details, feelings, anxieties, smells, and cringing horror of my own teenage years better than Black Hole, and I'm 15 years younger than Charles is." --Chris Ware
cust review: The art is stark and beautiful, more like wood cut block prints than pen and ink. The story is intruiging, propelling, and sensitive. I love how Burns uses swirling recombinations of visual motifs and symbols to biuld a sense of mounting chaos and intesnity. I love how the plot centers on an extremely bizarre and outlandish premise (the "bug") but the narrative barely seems to notice; we're not subjected to any off point explanations about what it is, how it works, the philosphical or political implications. Like everything else in a teenage world, the bug is just one more f-ed up situation interfering with everyone's attempt to find meaning and love and fun.