Set Description:
Black Hole is one of independent comics' true masterpieces. It is part body horror, part coming-of-age story, part romance, part cultural critique, and entirely written and inked by the inimitable Charles Burns. The first four issues, plus 2nd printings of the first two, were published by Kitchen Sink Press. After that publisher's demise, the remaining books were released through Fantagraphics, along with reprints of #1-3. A comic-book-format art book companion, entitled Echo Echo, was also published, this time through famed comic and comic-art publisher Alvin Buenaventura's short-lived Pigeon Press.
Between the original limited series and the Pantheon Books collected edition, Black Hole has won an impressive list of awards. The title earned Burns the Harvey Award for Best Inker... seven times. The compilation also earned the a 2006 Harvey for "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Works" and the Ignatz for "Outstanding Anthology or Collection" in the same year. The series has touched other media as well. The Silversun Pickups' successful 2012 alt rock song "The Pit" is an homage to Black Hole, and the graphic novel itself is the book given by Alexander to Maurice in the 2014 film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Efforts to adapt the series to film have, so far, stalled, despite attracting A-list attention. At one point, Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary were slated for a screenplay, but nothing came of it. David Fincher was on the project, then off, then on again, then finally off. In 2010, director Rupert Sanders (who would later direct Snow White and the Huntsman and Ghost in the Shell) created a short film intended as a proof-of-concept for a feature production, but that opportunity never arose. For now, the rights are held by Plan B, although there hasn't been any movement on it since 2018. Regardless, I feel it's pretty likely that at some point, someone will adapt this as either a film or Netflixesque series.
Returning to the comics themselves, this title is surprisingly hard to find in grade. The covers are thick, semi-gloss cardstock. Bindery tears at the corners are common, and the covers scuff easily. Not to mention that several issues are "black covers" in the true sense of the term. As indie books, print runs were never as high as mainstream titles. Comichron's report on orders through Diamond suggests something like 6000 copies ordered for the early issues, but the long delays between releases hurt interest; the last couple books in particular were below 5000.
Black Hole had licensed printings in other languages! I have graded sets for the German and Spanish editions. The Spanish republisher is the only foreign edition to reprint the book in the original 12-issue format. German publisher Reprodukt opted to condense the series into six books, each a double-sized volume reprinting two of the original issues. Black Hole was also published in Italian, where it was condensed even further, into three oversized books containing four issues apiece! Finally, there was a French publication about which I currently don't have a lot of information (and don't own copies). Unless CGC branches out into new encapsulation technology, there will never be a graded set for the French books because they were published in the traditional French bande desinee format -- which means they are hardcovers.
The collected edition was also published in a great many languages, including Polish, Portuguese, and Russian, although collecting foreign trade collections is outside of my interest in this series.
What's still missing here? Not much. I need a nice #5 1st print. I think the best copy in my unslabbed box is a 9.2-9.4 book, and I'd really like to have the 1st printings all at 9.6 or higher. I wouldn't mind getting higher grade copies of the second printing of #2 and of all the Spanish books, but they're tough issues to find in grade.
Additionally, Burns created a pamphlet-style book out of unused design sketches from the series, called Drawn from Memory, which I'd love to pick up.
Finally, before the first comics were printed by Kitchen Sink, Charles Burns privately printed one chapter of what would become Black Hole #1. That chapter, SSSSSSSS serves as sort of an ashcan. Very few copies were printed, and those were handed out by Burns personally. At least one has made it to the secondary market, but I missed its last sale by a couple of years, to my dismay. Hopefully, someday, it will be resold again, or another of the copies will surface and I'll be able to add it to this collection. |