Black Hole

Charles Burns’s Black Hole is a singular, acclaimed graphic novel from Pantheon, serialized in a single, complete volume. Set in a suburban 1970s, it follows a group of teenagers as they contend with a bizarre, sexually transmitted plague that manifests as strange physical mutations. Burns, who both wrote and drew the work, crafts a hauntingly beautiful and unsettling coming-of-age story that masterfully blends body horror with the raw anxieties of adolescence. Its unflinching, dreamlike imagery and stark black-and-white art have made it a touchstone of alternative comics.