BLACK HOLE 61
Chop-Chop, a sort of comic sidekick. Eisner readily admitted that the Blackhawk
squadron was based on the French Foreign Legion. As others (such as Reed Crandall )
took over writing and artistic duties due to the war, the depictions of machinery and
aircraft improved, while the stores moved in new directions.
Blackhawk was a man of means, for he had his own island (located in the middle of
the North Atlantic) and personal air fl eet of the latest attack aircraft (the Douglas X5F,
an actual but impractical design). He was able to wreak havoc on the Axis powers (both
German and Japanese) throughout the war. Th e Blackhawk squad even had their own
song: “Over land, over sea, we fi ght to make men free. Of danger we don’t care, we’re
Blackhawks.” It was a way to inspire others.
Th e series also reinforced standard patterns of thought during that time. Characters
often had stereotypical aspects to them, either in dress, or speech. When Pearl Harbor
occurred, the comic book reported on the attack and the need to avenge U.S. citizens,
but again noted that the plan had to be a German, not Japanese, plot, for the Japa-
nese were not that clever. Th e story lines often told of cowards redeeming themselves
in combat, or of people who fi ght for the greater good without doubt concerning the
reasons for fi ghting.
Th e series lasted well past the normal run of war-themed comics. As characters
such as Captain America were retired after the war, Blackhawk continued his crusade
to stamp out injustice around the globe. In that regard, the comic became a type of
adventure comic with a war slant. As the war ended, the comic evolved. Th e Blackhawks
became more like international spies fi ghting for right and American ideals, although
they were not Americans; for a time, in “New Blackhawk Era,” they even adopted super-
hero identities. Th e Blackhawk title, by then published by DC comics, was discontinued
in 1968, though Blackhawk and his squadron have occasional made subsequent appear-
ances, such as in a miniseries written and drawn by Howard Chaykin in the 1980s.
Cord Scott
BLACK HOLE. Th is graphic novel by writer and artist Charles Burns was fi rst published
in 12 separate issues by Fantagraphics Books from 1995 to 2004, then compiled and
edited into a hefty, unpaginated hardcover in 2005 by Pantheon/ Random House. Set
in Seattle in the mid-1970s, the story follows teenagers in love and lust as they contract
and contend with a sexually-transmitted plague that manifests its symptoms by mutat-
ing diff erently in each individual—some with easily concealable symptoms and some
grotesque. None of the symptoms appear to be terminal, but then a series of killings
begins.
Th e novel’s opening scene signals that readers are in for a strange, twisted trip. Keith
crushes on Chris, his biology lab partner, while dissecting a frog. Th e formaldehyde,
the guts, the gaping slit—Keith passes out and has a montage of fragmented premoni-
tions that serve as motifs throughout the book. While Keith’s feelings for Chris remain
unrequited, they both fall hard for other loves, both of whom are already infected.
Burns alternates between Keith’s and Chris’s points of view, and readers sometimes
