Customer Reviews

Big Baby (Charles Burns Library)

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Graphic storyteller Charles Burns hits his artistic and narrative stride in the three immaculately rendered black and white comics stories reprinted in this beautifully bound, library-quality volume from Fantagraphics. Originally serialized in alternative weekly newpapers in the '80s, CURSE OF THE MOLE MEN, TEEN PLAGUE, and BLOOD CLUB portray the suburbs of "Leave It to Beaver", seen through the eyes of child who can't turn away the violence and seething sexuality behind the facade. Burns is possibly the finest draftsman to come out the 80s comics underground, and integrates a Bauhaus design sense with a flair for Fifties EC horror. Highly recommended for fans of EIGHTBALL, Psychotronic films, and anyone who grew up in Fifties or early Sixties suburbia.

I have been a devout reader of Burn's Black Hole comic since I first found it on the shelves a couple of years ago. That he is a mesmerizing artist goes without saying. Black Hole has a very meandering plot at times, and it gets somewhat overshadowed by it's technical virtuosity. Big Baby, while it has less scope, is much more concise and places the reader directly in the path of evil. The final story in this volume "Blood Club" is a really haunting tale that I believe is his best work. One minor note, the image above is from Blood Club but it is not the actual cover on the book...It has Big Baby playing with some toys.

I've never read a bad comic by Charles Burns; The art is incredible and his storytelling is subtle, smart, and engaging. I consider him one of the top five cartoonists working today (Dan Clowes, R. Crumb, Adrienne Tomine, and Chris Ware being the others) and "Big Baby" is another fine example of his talent. As always with contemporary comic books, it's a bit expensive for about a half hour of reading, but it inspires immediate rereading and is just to good to miss. Highly recommended.

Big Baby is a series of comics Burns did in the mid 80s and early 90s about an alien-looking kid nicknamed Big Baby. They're drawn in Burns' inimitable and unique style, all inky blacks and glaring whites, and show you the early formations of some of the ideas that led Burns to create "Black Hole".

"Curse of the Molemen" is about a neighbour who's having a swimming pool put in as a warped test of his wife's fidelity - will she cheat on him with one of the workmen? One of these workmen teases Big Baby that there's molemen in the hole and so one night Big Baby goes to the hole and imagines a subterranean prison with evil looking creatures holding humans captive. The story ends happily though and on an ambiguous note - did he imagine the molemen?

"Teen Plague" is similar to the themes of "Black Hole" and features one of Burns' most disturbing creations - a talking eyeball on a human body!

"Blood Club" is about a ghost boy at a summer camp and Big Baby's attempts to put the spirit to rest.

The stories all feature elements of growing up and childhood which many of us can relate to but Burns twists them with monsters and other-wordly beings.

It's an interesting book with a great central character and some fun, disturbing stories. If you've read Burns before and liked him, you'll love it. Amazing artwork too. A good read.