Charles Burns

Talk Description

My talk will offer an image-rich retrospective of my work in comics and illustrations. I will begin with early publication in Art Spiegelman's Raw and other punk fanzines of the early 80's, through years in Italy (1984-86) with Matotti's 'Valvoline' Group of artists; my stories for various horror anthologies and the ElBorbah series; the many magazine publications; illustrations for alternative reviews, famous magazines (Time; Esquire), comics anthologies and CD covers; up through the current series of books, including the first, X'ed Out (released November 2010, Pantheon Books).

Biography

Charles Burns is a cartoonist and illustrator whose books include Big Baby (2000, Fantagraphics Books), Skin Deep (2001, Fantagraphics Books), Black Hole (2005, Pantheon Books) and X'ed Out (2010, Pantheon Books). Since its debut, Black Hole has been a multiple Harvey, Eisner and Ignatz Award winner, and made The Comics Journal's list of the 'Top 100 English-Language Comics of the Century.' Burns's first significant work appeared in Spiegelman's Raw magazine in the early 1980s. His comics and projects range from Iggy Pop's 'Brick by Brick' album cover to an ad campaign for Altoids. He designed the set for Mark Morris's New York production of The Nutcracker at BAM. His magazine illustration work has appeared in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, The New York Times magazine, and in 2003 he became the regular cover artist for The Believer. He contributed to the French animated feature Peur(s) Du Noir, released by IFC in 2008.