The 1970s Seattle suburbs serve as the setting for nearly the whole comic strip by Charles Burns. which suffers from an unidentified illness that spreads through sexual contact. The Bug, a sickness that causes bizarre bodily mutation, frequently causes those who contract it to grow odd body parts like tails and lumps, but it can also leave victims horrifically scarred and mutated.
Few people are aware that Charles took ten years to complete this comic book, which has 368 pages and 12 issues. Many people think it is autobiographical, but Charles has never verified nor refuted that claim. Black Hole’s strength comes from the way he handles issues like adolescent anxiety, substance misuse, hedonistic awakenings, and other forms of excess.
His work has a clear purpose and successfully captures the sense of bodily horror seen in the early works of filmmakers like David Cronenberg. Even when they are showing private parts, the drawings are unvarnished and provocative.
Black Hole is a glimpse into the complexities of adolescent psyche, yet it still stays loyal to its central themes of bodily horror and STDs. Explore all 12 issues of the comic book in this movie as we delve into its unique and unusual world.
Issue 1 The Anatomy
The plot primarily follows a group of teens, with Keith and Chris receiving most of the attention. The first chapter of Black Hole takes place in the biology lab, where students had assembled to dissect frogs. While everyone else was attempting to project a tough-guy persona, our apparent protagonist Keith was petrified of the same things. The most admired and well-liked student in the class, Chris, on the other hand, stood out from the other girls because she appeared to know what she was doing. Keith had severe anxiety, which he partly attributed to the fact that he was a stoner.
Nevertheless, as Keith made an incision on the frog’s body after pinning its limbs, he froze at the sight of the frog’s hard and white visceral parts because of the formaldehyde. But more than the stiff guts and veins of the frogs, what scared Keith to fall unconscious was a premonition that he saw in the incision; the cut looked like a woman’s private, but it resembled much more.
At that moment, he froze and saw three images, first, the same incision at the back of a foot, an enlarged version on a woman’s back, and a hand covering someone’s genitals, and all of these visions were going to bear gravity in the days to come. When Keith woke up from his unfortunate forty winks, all the students had gathered around him, and amongst them was Chris, the girl of his dream, his crush.
After the incident, Keith and his friends went to a secluded woody hilltop, a place they called Planet Xeno. To reach there, one had to climb a ravine and make a long walk, but it was worth the pain because of the calm and the view. While smoking up a joint, Keith realized that they were being watched, but who could possibly come up so far. Upon inspection, they found a tent, and within it, several articles such as clothes, books, comics, and even adult magazines. But Keith made a stranger discovery, he found a girl’s skin in those woods.
It seemed as if she had left her skin, much like a snake does. Clearly, Keith was treading into territory he wasn’t supposed to, and he was surprised by an extremely odd-looking humanoid. This guy had diagonal eyes, a busted-up mouth with teeth sticking out of pink gristle, with a round nose, and lumps all over his face. The weird dude was trying to say something, which Keith finally figured were the words, ‘go away.’
Issue 2 The Love Bug
A few days later, Chris seems to be struggling with her period cramps, but she has much more on her mind than just that. In an impulsive move, she decides to go skinny dipping with another college mate, and it is revealed that she has the Bug. But, how did a girl of Chris’s standard, someone who doesn’t miss a single class and tends to stay away from boys, get the Bug? Well, at a party, she met a classmate named Rob Facincani, a boy she sort of had a crush on.
They started talking, drank a few chilled ones, one thing led to another, and they found themselves out in the open, on a bench,in the middle of a cemetery. They were both drunk and young, so it’s not hard to imagine what would have followed next, and so it did. But just before they were about to indulge in some ferocious lovemaking, Rob stopped to say something to Chris, but Chris told him that she knew it already.
Chris thought that he was going to tell her about his girlfriend, but that was far from the truth; he was bugged. While making love, Chris kissed Rob’s neck by pulling open his shirt, and that’s when it happened. She saw the weirdest thing ever, a mouth on Rob’s neck.
It was like fish on dry land, gasping for air, and making tiny noises. Chris knew she had been bugged, that her life had changed forever. After the incident, Chris became aloof from everything, including her love for education and Rob. But she didn’t stop feeling for Rob, she still remembered his touch, and everything that happened on that bench surrounded by a million corpses.
Issue 3 One-Sided Love
Much like Chris, Rob, too, didn’t forget the events from that night, and it came to bite him. One night, after making out with his girlfriend, Rob was sleeping, but his mouth on his neck spoke of Chris. And Lisa knew at that moment that Chris had been cheating on her, she threw him out of the house in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Keith and his friends were back at Planet Xeno, where they were doing stronger drugs.
The way Charles Burns captures teenage emotions and habits is simply outstanding; his art tells a million words in a single image. Nevertheless, as Keith went to take a piss, he chanced upon Chris, only this time, she was all naked. Keith couldn’t help but stare at her from a distance; of course, she didn’t know about it.
But then something happened, Chris was barefoot, and a shard of glass stuck in her foot, she screamed in pain, and it was bleeding. By now, word had traveled to Keith that she had been inflicted with the mutation-inducing virus. Keith couldn’t stop himself from helping the girl he liked so much and approached her.
The cut on Chris’s foot resembled the one he had seen in his premonition in the biology class. He pulled out the shard of glass, and the two had a moment. He even bandaged her foot with his t-shirt, but Chris didn’t reciprocate any of Keith’s feelings, but Keith fell deeper in love with Chris. I mean, the dude just touched the blood of a person whom he knew was infected with the Bug. Things youngsters do for love!
Issue 4 Lizard Queen
The following day, Keith went out with his friends for another party, and this time he was high on acid. Charles Burns ensures that he’s honest in the portrayal of teenage addictions and harmful afflictions and the issues they lead to. Oftentimes, youngsters do strange things under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and our Keith was no different. Already high on acid, Keith went on to smoke up a few joints, and ended up meeting the person who’d change his life forever.
At the party, Keith met a young girl named Eliza; she also carried the Bug, which had manifested itself in the form of a lizard-like tail, something that would later give Eliza the notorious title of Lizard Queen. The two of them shared some personal time.
Eliza made him a sandwich, showed him her room, and all the weird art that she had created. The way she was being overly friendly with Keith seemed suspicious to him, but then he didn’t care much. Not before long, he saw her tail and knew of her infection, and yet, he went to her room.
In fact, the dangling tail made him all the more turned on towards her. Soon, Eliza put him on her bed, and they would have had intercourse, but they were intruded on by Keith’s host. Clearly, this intrusion made Keith uncomfortable, and he left. Having said that, he couldn’t entirely forget Eliza, her beauty, and the way he felt around her.
Issue 5 No One’s Safe
The story now shifts to the night Rob’s girlfriend kicked him out after finding out about Chris. With nowhere to go, he came to the hill where other kids with the Bug used to reside in a colony of their own making. Initially, they were alarmed at the sight of a trespasser because strange things had been happening around the place. For instance, one of the kids had found a severed arm, and then there were strange effigies made of bones, etc.
However, when they discovered that it was Rob, they put their guard down. Meanwhile, everyone at school came to know about Chris’s new disease, and people had started to ignore her or maintain a safe distance from her. Chris was suffering a lot, but her silver lining arrived in the form of Rob, who finally gathered the courage to speak about the night in the cemetery.
They met behind the school’s gym, and took a stroll up the hill. The two of them shared their sides of the story and reconciled. Chris was devastated because of the Bug; she was afraid that she would be looked down upon and outcasted by her friends.
Nevertheless, the two of them made out and renewed their relationship. Meanwhile, the town was now witnessing more severe forms of mutations, and many teens who had contracted the disease left for the encampment in the woods. Amidst these circumstances, several teens, especially females, had started to disappear.
Issue 6 Keith’s Troubles
It’s difficult to fathom the number of parties Keith attends, I mean, he was back at another party that his friend had arranged. This time, there were going to be three girls and three guys, but two of the girls didn’t show up, and Keith was getting restless. He was still stuck at Chris, and the moment he had shared with her in the woods. He wanted to get away but didn’t want to leave his friends alone.
In the end, he gathered the courage to leave the place and walked out. However, it was going to be a difficult walk, he was once again under the influence, and found himself having hallucinations. In the end, he somehow reached the encampment of the infected teens, who welcomed him, and offered him drinks. On the way, Keith came across a severed arm, and he knew he was not hallucinating.
This time, he could smell the rotting meat. Keith was surprised to see that they were just like his other friends, they may have looked different, but they were not monsters; they didn’t want to hurt him. The boy had a lot going on in his life; he had stoner friends who were good for almost nothing, his love of life showed no interest in him, and he was aimless in life. Keith ended up unburdening himself in front of the encampment kids, and he felt relieved.
Issue 7 Chris Escapes
On the other hand, Chris and Rob go on a getaway to a nearby beach, where they drink, swim, and spend the night making love. Chris had the time of her life, and the two of them were falling deeper in love. Upon returning from the little love excursion, Chris’s mom confronted her about all the missing classes, etc. Furthermore, Chris’s mom was adamant about taking her to a gynecologist, something that Chris dreaded, because that would give away the fact that she had had sex.
She told Rob about her situation at home, and the two of them decided that the only way to escape the situation was through Chris running away from her home. Once again, Charles Burns was smart enough in depicting teenage behavior, which very much revolves around finding escapes rather than solutions. Nevertheless, the girl wrote a letter to her parents saying that she was going to California, but in reality, she went to the encampment in the woods to live with other infected kids.
Among other kids, Rob introduced her to Dave, a boy with heavy facial mutations who used to be unpopular and extremely bullied back in school. In times to come, Dave would have a large role to play in Chris’s life. On the other hand, Rob continued to live with his parents, but he made sure to visit Chris every day after school, often bringing her food, drinks, and some fun time.
Issue 8 Things We Do In Love
A few days passed, Chris was staying at the encampment, and Rob would visit her daily. Meanwhile, Keith had started to move on from Chris, not knowing where she was. Eventually, he bumped into Eliza, this was the first time he had met her since his last encounter, but she seemed different this time. She was pale, her charm had gone away, and she looked extremely high.
She invited her into her room once again, but all her art was gone. Clearly, something bad had happened, but Eliza kept shut about it. Keith already found her attractive, and he couldn’t help it when she made the first move. Seeing her naked for the first time, he let his horses loose, and the two of them ended up having sex. Keith was finally infected with the Bug. Meanwhile, at the encampment in the woods, Chris and Rob were having the time of their lives, but it was getting late, and Rob had to leave. Little did the kids know that their lives were about to go down in a spiral.
As Rob left Chris’s tent, he got attacked by an unknown infected teen and was subsequently killed. Chris called out his name, but it was all in vain. Rob was dead, and Chris knew nothing about it. She found herself devastated, thinking that Rob had left her for good, but she wasn’t ready to believe it just yet.
Issue 9 Keith And Chris
Being one of the infected, Keith soon became a regular at the encampment, which the kids now called, The Pit. He would often bring supplies, etc., for the infected kids. By now, Chris was devastated because of Rob’s sudden and unannounced disappearance, and she had nowhere to go. One day, troubled by her extreme loneliness, she went down to The Pit, where Keith saw her for the first time in all these days, and at once, his feelings for Chris came back. Since his mutation was on his chest, he could hide it and pretend to be just another kid around the block.
Apart from working at a local mall, he was looking after a tract house, the owners of which had left town for vacation. He convinced Chris to come down to the house and prepared her a surprise meal. Chris was taken aback and was delighted, but this was to change soon.
She relapsed into her memories with Rob, and told Keith everything that she suffered after his disappearance. She started visiting her friend Marci in the middle of the nightand unburdens her problems, but even all that came to a stop, when Marci and Chris had a confrontation about Marci’s boyfriend. Chris sleeps the night in the house with Keith, and she slowly drifts into dreams about Rob.
Issue 10 The House of Bugs
Eventually, Keith starts inviting other kids from the encampment to stay at the house. Naturally, it soon becomes a dumpster, but the one thing that smells the most is Chris. She almost always keeps herself high on alcohol, with little to no regard for her personal well-being or hygiene. Keith finds it difficult to see her in such a terrible state, but he can not do much. He has a job to go to and a family that waits for him.
Nevertheless, he does help Chris whenever and in whichever way, he can. On a regular day at work, Keith meets Eliza, the girl he made out with. This time around, she was not a damsel in distress anymore, she was a changed person who was more attractive than the first day Keith met her.
It turned out that Eliza also felt for Keith, and she ended up giving him her number. Later, Keith returned for his daily visit to Chris at the house but found out that her window was left open. It took him no time to figure out that something was wrong. He stormed into the house to find a pile of bodies of the infected teens; someone had shot them all dead. However, Chris was nowhere to be found; probably, she had escaped the slaughter.
Issue 11 The House Of Horrors
It’s revealed that Dave had taken a liking toward Chris, and he was the one who had sent one of his henchmen teens named Rick, to kill Rob. Dave later kills Rick as well. But despite having Rob killed, Chris only saw Dave as a friend. The two of them grew closer, and would share long hours talking about songs, comics, and movies, but Chris never felt romantically for Dave; she was still hung up on Rob.
One day, Dave got really drunk and made a move on Chris but, she rejected him. Agitated, he left the house and returned sometime later with a gun, and shot everyone inside. However, Chris had managed to escape in time. On the other hand, Keith had lost Chris once again. He did what was best for him, and he left town with Eliza to go to the Painted Desert, a place she always wanted to visit.
Their plan was to stay on the road for a few days until their money ran out, after which they would settle in a small town, where he would work, and she would focus on her art. Keith and Eliza grew close to each other; she shared her horrific stories when she was assaulted by her roommates. Meanwhile, Chris began an arduous journey to the same beach that she had visited with Rob. It seems that this was her way of finding solace and peace, but more importantly, she was escaping Dave and death.
Issue 12 Uncertain Furures
In the last issue of the comic book, Keith and Eliza are seen spending a night at a motel, where it is revealed, how the two of them have fallen for each other. Despite being afraid of what lies in the future, they are delighted to have each other’s company. On the other hand, Chris has reached the beach where it all started with Rob, and much like Keith, she is terrified of the future.
But Chris is in a worse state than Keith because she has no one by her side, no one to tell her that everything is going to be okay. Having said that, she was a strong girl, and despite having several reasons to end her life, she wouldn’t do that, at least not yet. But she doesn’t want to think about life’s miseries right now, and swims deep into the water, uncertain of her future but determined still. The reader is left to decide whatever happened to Chris, did she have a sexual reawakening, or did she let go of the world?
Charles Burns created a beautiful story with several tropes about teenage angst, the troubles of life, and everything else that young boys and girls goes through. It must be evident by now that he painted a dark picture about AIDS, but he used colors like body horror, dark humor, etc. Do give it a read, and we promise that you’ll have a different perspective on life. If that perspective is for the good or the bad, we can not tell.