Curse of the Molemen (1991) by Charles Burns

I wasn’t quite aware of what extent Kitchen Sink had become a reprint publishing house by 1991. They’ve done reprints of comic strips and the like since the late 70s, but now they’re also reprinting books like this, originally published a handful of years earlier.

But this time it’s in colour, on very shiny, white paper.

The original book was smaller, and in black and white, and it felt like such a perfect, mysterious little object. It was alien, with Burns’ insectile people and odd, but familiar, storytelling. I hadn’t expected the format to make much difference, but printed in colour, in normal comic book size, it’s just a whole less powerful, for some reason. It reads more like camp? While the original book was horrifying.

But I mean, it’s still Burns.

Kitchen Sink had, by this time, perfected their production line. They’d tried out a lot of stuff in the 80s, but now most anything that had any sort of nice appeal would also be available in signed and numbered hardcover editions for $$$. It sometimes seems more mercenary than anything else.

This is the one hundred and twenty-eighth post in the Entire Kitchen Sink blog series.