Goon Squad Card Set

Other Art

Comics Journal Interview

THIS IS A FAN PAGE... I ONLY DID IT BECAUSE I LIKE BURNS'S WORK. ALL THE PICTURES ARE SCANNED FROM BOOKS AND COMICS I OWN.

If you like this page, perhaps you might also be interested in the other tribute page I've created, for Melbourne artist Howard Arkley, although VERY different from Charles Burns!

WHY I LOVE CHARLES BURNS
If you haven't thought of comics as being the type of medium where you would find powerful, frightening, personal and moving works of art, Charles Burns will turn you around.

There can be no doubt that he is a genre artist, and no argument that horror is the genre he works in. But his comics are so personal, so deeply instilled with archetypal concepts of guilt, childhood, adolescent sexuality, and poignant, nostalgic portrayals of post-war America, that he transcends genre. He is not just a great comics artist, but a great artist in any medium.

I first encoutnered Burns's work in the pages of Raw. I bought Raw #5 from The Land Beyond Beyond, a wonderful Sydney shop which I often frequented in the early 80s, and which is still operating today.

Much of Burns's early work seems to come right out of 50s and 60s America. In particular it draws on the horror comics and television programs of that time, combined with a strong autographical feeling.

His latest masterwork, Black Hole, jumps forward to the 70s. The morality tales of Big Baby are replaced with the more frightening ghouls which associate themselves with teenage sexuality.