Caprice – Charles Burns

Caprice – Charles Burns – (32 pages, textless, softcover, published by Éditions Cornélius)

Caprice

‘Caprice’ is a collection of illustrations and fictional book covers by American comic artist Charles Burns. The illustrations feel like missing pages from previous books or potential titles lying on the shelf waiting for publication. Once again, the comic artist manages to capture an absurd world in which pulp, horror, absurdism, and sex merge.

Charles Burns

Charles Burns, known for 'Black Hole' among others, is undeniably one of the most influential American comic artists of the past 30 years. His sharp, high-contrast illustrations seem to be borrowed directly from 1950s pulp horror. His stories always feel unsettling; protagonists always seem to mutate, grotesquely succumbing to their own lusts and desires.

“The work of Charles Burns is a vision that’s both horrifying and hilariously funny, and which he executes with cold, ruthless clarity… It’s almost as if the artist… as if he weren’t quite… human!” - R. Crumb