Synopsis
An early cult classic graphic novel from the author of the acclaimed Black Hole.
Meet El Borbah, a 400-pound private eye who wears a Mexican wrestler's tights and eerie mask. Subsisting entirely on junk food and beer, El Borbah conducts his investigations with tough talk and a short temper. He smashes through doors and skulls as he stalks a perfectly realized film-noir city filled with punks, geeks, business-suited creeps and mad scientists.El Borbah features five science-fiction and true-detective episodes: In "Robot Love," rebellious kids in nightclubs replace their "parts" with mechanical substitutes as part of a new fad, only to find that their parents have been automating themselves all along; in "Love in Vein" a mad visionary sperm donor plans a master race and turns "his" kids against their parents; "Bone Voyage" details the exploits of a cult called the Brotherhood of the Bone, a kind of cross between the Masons and the Mansons. The fantastic plots take up the weird fears of a scientific society, but the action is pure pulp. Charles Burns effortlessly spins yarns with gritty punchlines and pictures so perfect they must have existed in some collective memory of junk drama. And through it all crashes El Borbah, trying to make an honest buck from dishonest people.
Burns is the author of Black Hole, the acknowledged masterpiece of the form that Fantagraphics serialized through the 1990s and will be collected into a massive graphic novel in 2005 by Pantheon Books. El Borbah is Burns' earliest work, created in the early 1980s, though the work remains eerily contemporary. Steeped in a "sci-fi-noir" aesthetic informed by Burns' steadily childhood diet of B-movies and comic books, but with a sophisticated sense of humor that is often as disturbing as it is funny, El Borbah is comics as its most entertaining.
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About the Author
Charles Burns is the award-winning creator of the graphic novel, Black Hole. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.
Review
“El Borbah is wonderfully perverse.”
- The Village Voice Literary Supplement
“I still think Burns is the best cartoonist in the world.”
- Lynda Barry
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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title
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El Borbah (The Complete Charles Burns Cartoon Library, No. 1)
Published by
Fantagraphics Books, 1999
ISBN 10: 1560973269
ISBN 13: 9781560973263
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Chamblin Bookmine, Jacksonville, FL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Folio Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1st. 93p. Contents unmarked with b/w illustrations. Pictorial boards are vibrant and pointed with a red cloth spine. Binding is squared, hinges are secure. Seller Inventory # 96650
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El Borbah (The Complete Charles Burns Cartoon Library , No 1)
Seller: Goodwill Books, Hillsboro, OR, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: acceptable. Fairly worn, but readable and intact. If applicable: Dust jacket, disc or access code may not be included. Seller Inventory # 3IIT03004PE1_ns
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El Borbah (The Complete Charles Burns Cartoon Library , No 1)
Seller: Toscana Books, AUSTIN, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: new. Excellent Condition.Excels in customer satisfaction, prompt replies, and quality checks. Seller Inventory # Scanned1560973269