Charles Burns (born September 27, 1955) is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

and

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

. His early work was published in a Sub Pop fanzine, and he achieved prominence in the early issues of ''

RAW Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

''. His graphic novel ''

Black Hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

'' won the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...

Career

Comics

Charles Burns' earliest works include illustrations for the

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

fanzine, and '' Another Room Magazine'' of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

, but he came to prominence when his comics were published for the first time in early issues of ''

'', the avant-garde comics magazine founded in 1980 by

Françoise Mouly Françoise Mouly (; born 24 October 1955) is a Paris-born New York-based designer, editor, and publisher. She is best known as co-founder, co-editor, and publisher of the comics and graphics magazine ''Raw'' (1980–1991), as the publisher of ...

and

Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman (; born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman on February 15, 1948) is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazines ''Arcade (comics maga ...

. In 1982, Burns did a die-cut cover for RAW #4. Raw Books also published two books of Burns as RAW One-Shots: ''Big Baby'' and ''Hard-Boiled Defective Stories''.El Borbah / ''Hard-Boiled Defective Stories''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on December 2, 2015. In 1994, he was awarded a

Pew Fellowships in the Arts A pew () is a long bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating members of a congregation or choir in a church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview The first backless stone benches began to appear in English churches in the th ...

. In 1999, he showed at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

): ''El Borbah'' (1999), ''Big Baby'' (2000), and ''Skin Deep'' (2001). (A fourth and last volume, ''Bad Vibes'', has yet to be published, which would have the Library collecting the entirety of his pre-''Black Hole'' comics work. It was later stated that Burns did not feel there was enough material for a complete fourth volume.) From 1993 to 2004, he serialized the 12 chapters of his

-winning

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

'' (12 issues from

Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcov ...

and

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

). The series was collected into a single volume in 2005. ''Black Hole'' was featured prominently in the film ''

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ''Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'' is a 2014 American science fiction film directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is the sequel to ''Rise of the Planet of the Apes'' (2011), and the second ins ...

''. In 2007 Burns contributed material for the French made animated horror anthology ''

Fear(s) of the Dark ''Fear(s) of the Dark'' (french: Peur(s) du noir) is a 2007 French black-and-white animated horror anthology film on the subject of fear produced by Prima Linéa Productions and written and directed by several notable comic book creators and gra ...

''. In October 2010, Burns released the first part of a new series, ''X'ed Out''. Part two of the new trilogy, ''The Hive'', was released in October 2012. ''Sugar Skull'', the final installment in the trilogy, was released Fall of 2014. The series was collected into a single volume, ''Last Look'', published by Pantheon in 2016.

Illustration

Burns' high-profile illustrations include album cover work for the

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

album ''

Brick by Brick ''Brick by Brick'' is the ninth studio album by American singer Iggy Pop, released in June 1990 by Virgin Records. Production and content After attracting mixed reviews for much of his 1980s output, Pop hired producer Don Was, who was a long ...

''. His art was also licensed by

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...

to illustrate product and advertising material for their failed

OK Soda OK Soda is a discontinued soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company in 1993 that courted the American Generation X demographic with unusual advertising tactics, including neo-noir design, chain letters and deliberately negative publicity. After ...

product. More recently, he has worked on advertising campaigns for

Altoids Altoids are a brand of mints, sold primarily in distinctive metal tins. The brand was created by the London-based Smith & Company in the 1780s, and became part of the Callard & Bowser company in the 19th century. Their advertising slogan is "The ...

and portrait illustrations for '' The Believer''. In the early 1990s, his '' Dogboy'' stories were adapted by

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

as a live-action serial for ''

Liquid Television ''Liquid Television'' was an animation showcase that appeared on MTV from 1991 to 1995. It has served as the launching point for several high-profile original cartoons, including ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' and ''Æon Flux''. The bulk of ''Liquid T ...

''. In 1991, choreographer Mark Morris commissioned him to create illustrations that were then used as a basis for his version of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...

,'' ''

The Hard Nut ''The Hard Nut'' is a ballet set to Tchaikovsky's 1892 ''The Nutcracker'' and choreographed by Mark Morris. It took its inspiration from the comic artist Charles Burns, whose art is personal and deeply instilled with archetypal concepts of guilt ...

''. Burns's style was a source of inspiration for Martin Ander's artwork for ''

Fever Ray Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album under ...

'',

Karin Dreijer Andersson Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album unde ...

's solo project.

Publications

Comics and graphic novels

* 1988 ''Hardboiled Defective Stories'' (Pantheon Books) * 1991 ''Curse of the Molemen'' (Kitchen Sink Press) * 1992 front cover of ''The Residents - Freak Show'' (Dark Horse Comics) * 1995 ''Black Hole 1'' (Kitchen Sink Press) * 1995 ''Black Hole 2'' (Kitchen Sink Press) * 1996 ''Black Hole 3'' (Kitchen Sink Press) * 1997 ''Black Hole 4'' (Kitchen Sink Press) * 1998 ''Black Hole 5'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 1998 ''Black Hole 6'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 1999 ''El Borbah'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2000 ''Big Baby'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2000 ''Black Hole 7'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2000 ''Black Hole 8'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2001 ''Skin Deep: Tales of Doomed Romance'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2001 ''Black Hole 9'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2002 ''Black Hole 10'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2003 ''Black Hole 11'' (Fantagraphics Books) * 2004 ''Black Hole 12'' (Fantagraphics Books) ** 2005 ''Black Hole'' (Pantheon Books) ; collects ''Black Hole 1-12'' * 2010 ''X'ed Out'' (Pantheon Books) * 2012 ''The Hive'' (Pantheon Books) * 2014 '' Sugar Skull'' (Pantheon Books) ** 2016 ''Last Look'' (Pantheon Books) ; collects ''X'ed Out'', ''The Hive'' and ''Sugar Skull'' * 2019 ''Dédales'' (Cornélius, France) * 2021 ''Dédales 2'' (Cornélius, France)

Illustration books

* 1998 ''Facetasm'', Green Candy Press (in collaboration with

Gary Panter Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-Underground comix, underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of ...

) * 2007 ''One Eye'' (Pantheon Books) * ''Permagel'', French A3 sized publication in black and white * ''Love Nest'', Éditions Cornélius, hardcover * ''Vortex'', Éditions Cornélius, hardcover, full color * ''Johnny 23'',

Le Dernier Cri Le Dernier Cri is a Marseille based publishing house focused on publishing books, prints, silkscreens, posters and original art of visual artists that produce underground art. Pakito Bolino and Caroline Sury started the organisation in 1992. Bes ...

References

Sources

Charles Burns page at Fantagraphics
- Books in print from this publisher. *Brian Heater
"Interview: Charles Burns Pt. 1"
''The Daily Cross Hatch'', (November 10, 2008). *"I'm Slowly Learning to Draw Every Human Being in the United States," Interview with Hillary Chute, '' The Believer'', January 2008

External links

Charles Burns
at

Lambiek Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...

's Comiclopedia * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Charles American comics artists American graphic novelists Album-cover and concert-poster artists Alternative cartoonists Evergreen State College alumni University of California, Davis alumni Writers from Washington, D.C. Raw (magazine) Living people 1955 births Pew Fellows in the Arts American male novelists Weird fiction writers