Skin Deep

Charles Burns is the creator of the landmark horror graphic novel Black Hole (in development as a major motion picture directed by David Fincher). Skin Deep is the third (following El Borbah and Big Baby) of a series of three volumes reprinting his acclaimed oeuvre up to Black Hole. Skin Deep includes Burns's popular character Dog Boy (a red-blooded all-American boy with the transplanted heart of a dog) and the classic strip "Dog Days," in which a hash-slinging vixen wags her tail at our fearful hero. The book also collects "Burn Again," which features a strange fella named Bliss Blister, claiming to bring the Word of God, but some fear he brings something evil and profane. In "A Marriage Made in Hell," a young wife's flesh tingled with passion, but the sight of her made her husband's skin crawl. Was the love-knot she tied really a hangman's noose? These tales of doomed romance set a tone for the rest of Skin Deep. In addition to the comics, Skin Deep includes several pages of new illustrations reprinted from Burns's sketchbooks as well as covers and other pieces from foreign editions of Burns's work.