Charles Burns

As we inhabit the heads of several key characters - some kids who have it, some who don't, some who are about to get it - what unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness of it, or even to treat it.

‘An instant classic from a master of the form’PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'Unsettling and beautifully executed'GUARDIANAn arresting story of an artist's obsessions, from the beloved and award-winning author of Black Hole.As a child, Brian and his friend Jimmy would make home movies in their yards, coaxing their friends into starring as victims of grisly murders and smearing lipstick on them to simulate blood. Now an aspiring filmmaker, he, Jimmy and new girl in town Laurie – his reluctant muse – set off to a remote cabin in the woods.Armed with an old camera, they film a true sci-fi horror movie where humans are born of disembodied alien wombs, in homage to The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But as Brian's affections for Laurie go seemingly unreciprocated, Brian writes and draws himself into a fantasy where she is the girl of his dreams – both his damsel in distress and his saviour.Final Cut blurs the line between dreams and reality, imagination and perception in this astonishing look at what it truly means to express oneself through art.**A GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, THE NEW YORKER AND THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR**Charles Burns, Eisner Award-Winner, 2006

The beloved and award-winning author of BLACK HOLE's haunting and visually arresting story of an artist's obsessions, and the value and cost of pushing the boundaries of creativity As a child, Brian and his friend Jimmy would make sci-fi films in their yards, convincing their friends to star as victims of grisly murders, smearing lipstick on the "bodies" to simulate blood. Now a talented artist and aspiring filmmaker, Brian, along with Jimmy, Jimmy's friend Tina, and Laurie--his reluctant muse--sets off to a remote cabin in the woods with an old 8 millimeter camera to make a true sci-fi horror movie, an homage to Brian's favorite movie: Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But as Brian's affections for Laurie go seemingly unreciprocated, Brian writes and draws himself into a fantasy where she is the girl of his dreams, his damsel in distress, and his savior wrapped into one. Rife with references to classic sci-fi and horror movies and filled with panels of stunning depictions of nature, film and the surreal, Burns blurs the line between Brian's dreams and reality, imagination and perception. A master of the form at his finest, Final Cut is an astonishing look at what it means to truly express oneself through art.

Master cartoonist Charles Burns has never hidden his passion for comic books and pop culture from the 1950 and 1960s. Inspired by the romance, horror, and sci-fi comics of his youth, as well as the 1960s American underground, the author of Black Hole has created a collection of 80 original comic book covers that, through his own inimitable aesthetic, present an alternate universe of stories that never were, but that you will wish existed. The covers -- some with otherworldly titles in alien letterforms, and others that riff on classic genres (Throbbing Hearts, Unwholesome Love) and eras (Drug Buddy, Huss) -- each inspire a multitude of interpretations, build entire worlds, and suggest entire narratives that lie within their non-existent guts. This is Burns at his most playful, imaginative, and suggestive, using the format of the comic book to continue to explore many of the themes that run through all his longer-form work -- adolescence, metamorphosis, nightmares, and sexuality -- and provide a pretext for the creation of some of the most mysterious and bewitching imagery of Burns's incredible career. Kommix is like discovering an entire box of comic books you never knew existed.

The adventures of Ham and Eggs continue In this installment, the two mouse brothers learn the value of a good friend in a time of trouble. From the author of "Ham and Eggs in the Garden," "Ham and Eggs in the Soup" and "Ham and Eggs with Baldo."

The mouse brothers, Ham and Eggs, are back in a new adventure This time, they make an unusual new friend and learn that it's okay for friends to be a little different.Be sure to catch the brothers in their other quests: Ham and Eggs in the Garden and Ham and Eggs in the Soup

Now readers can find the long strange trip of Doug in all its mind-bending, heartbreaking totality. The fragments of the past collide with the reality of the present, nightmarish dreams evolve into an even more dreadful reality, and when you finally find out where all of this has been going, and what it means ...

A true graphic milestone: the epic trilogy that began with X'ed Out, continued in The Hive, and concluded in Sugar Skull--now in one volume. The long strange trip of Doug in all its mind-bending, heartbreaking totality. The fragments of the past collide with the reality of the present, nightmarish dreams evolve into an even more dreadful reality, and when you finally find out where all of this has been going, and what it means . . . it will make you go right back to the first page and read it all again with new eyes. Just like Doug. (With full-color illustrations throughout)

Instructions and exercises for the basic techniques needed for making silhouettes: learning the proportions of a profile, tracing a shadow, reducing an image, drawing and cutting freely, and the author's own "natural waves" technique How to create scissor-cut portraits, painted silhouettes, hollow-cut silhouettes, silhouettes painted on glass, caricatures, and more Includes information on the history of the craft and examples from artists from the eighteenth century to today. Creative and innovative suggestions for using color, appliquè, and three-dimensional effects.

From the creator of Black Hole the first volume of an epic masterpiece of graphic fiction in brilliant color. - "Tantalizing...a gorgeous head trip." --New York Doug is having a strange night. A weird buzzing noise on the other side of the wall has woken him up, and there, across the room, next to a huge hole torn out of the bricks, sits his beloved cat, Inky. Who died years ago. But who's nonetheless slinking out through the hole, beckoning Doug to follow. What's going on? To say any more would spoil the freaky, Burnsian fun, especially because X'ed Out, unlike Black Hole, has not been previously serialized, and every unnervingly meticulous panel will be more tantalizing than the last . . . Drawing inspiration from such diverse influences as Herg and William Burroughs, Charles Burns has given us a dazzling spectral fever-dream--and a comic-book masterpiece.

Tour of duty memoir as advisor in Buon Ho District, Vietnam.

A chilling graphic novel set in suburban Seattle during the mid-1970s describes the lives of the area's teenagers, who are suddenly faced with a devastating, disfiguring, and incurable plague that has descended on the young people of Seattle. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

"The best graphic novel of the year" (Time) tells the story of a strange plague devastating the lives of teenagers in mid-1970s suburban Seattle, revealing the horrifying nature of high school alienation--the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety, and the ennui. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways--from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)--but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters--some kids who have it, some who don't, some who are about to get it--what unfolds isn't the expected battle to fight the plague, or bring heightened awareness to it, or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself. And then the murders start. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying, Black Hole transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux and the kids who are caught in it--back when it wasn't exactly cool to be a hippie anymore, but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns and molting your skin...