The artwork in Black Hole is stark, precise and powerful. I have even more respect for author/illustrator Charles Burns after learning that the serialized comic book took ten years to complete, since the consistency of the work is commendable. There are those who believe the story line to be weak. I beg to differ. If this were a movie (and it soon will be in the hands of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary), it would be the equivalent of “Lost in Translation,” in that it is a drama focused on character development. The horror of the work stems from the unknown and the physical mutations that a number of characters develop. You become scared of a number of the characters and by the end you realize that they are nothing but human and that you’ve fallen into the trap of prejudice. A powerful metaphor for the AIDS epidemic.

This is an incredibly creepy, dark, powerful and wonderfully-illustrated graphic novel.