Episode 176: On Charles Burns' 'Black Hole' and the Medium of Comics

Comics, like cinema, is an eminently modern medium. And as with cinema, looking closely at it can swiftly acquaint us with the profound weirdness of modernity. Do that in the context of a discussion on Charles Burns' comic masterpiece Black Hole, and you're guaranteed a memorable Weird Studies episode. Black Hole was serialized over ten years beginning in 1995, and first released as a single volume by Pantheon Books in 2005. Like all masterpieces, it shines both inside and out: it tells a captivating story, a "weirding" of the teenage romance genre, while also revealing something of the inner workings of comics as such. In this episode, Phil and JF explore the singular wonders of a medium that, thanks to artists like Burns, has rightfully ascended from the trash stratum (weirdstudies.com/20) to the coveted empyrean of artistic respectability—without losing its edge.

BIG NEWS:

• If you're planning to be in Bloomington, Indiana on October 9th, 2024, click here (cinema.indiana.edu/upcoming-films/screening/20…) to purchase tickets to IU Cinema's screening of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, featuring a live Weird Studies recording with JF and Phil.

• Go to Weirdosphere (weirdosphere.org) to sign up for Matt Cardin's upcoming course, MC101: Writing at the Wellspring, starting on 22 October 2024.

• Visit shannontaggart.com/events and follow the links to learn more about Shannon's (online) Fall Symposium at the Last Tuesday Society. Featured speakers include Steven Intermill & Toni Rotonda, Shannon Taggart, JF Martel, Charles and Penelope Emmons, Doug Skinner, Michael W. Homer, Maria Molteni, and Emily Hauver.

Support us on Patreon (patreon.com/weirdstudies).

Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-stu… and pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-stu…, on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page.

Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (cosmophonia.podbean.com).

Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies)

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REFERENCES

Charles Burns, Black Hole (bookshop.org/a/18799/9780375714726)

Clement Greenberg’s concept of “medium specificity” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_specificity#cite_…)

Terry Gilliam (dir.), The Fisher King (imdb.com/title/tt0101889)

Seth (drawnandquarterly.com/author/seth), comic artist

Chris Ware, Building Stories (bookshop.org/a/18799/9780375424335)

“Graphic Novel Forms Today” (jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677339) in Critical Inquiry

Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (bookshop.org/a/18799/9780691141053)

Vilhelm Hammershoi (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhelm_Hammersh%C3%B8i), Danish painter

Ramsey Dukes, Words Made Flesh (bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311112)

G. Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Form)

Dave Hickey, “Formalism” (approachestopainting.wordpress.com/wp-content/…)

Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Art)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysippus, Stoic philosopher

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (bookshop.org/a/18799/9780060976255)

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