The Hive [Anglais] [Relié]

This is the 2nd part of a trilogy that begins with 2010's X'ed Out, so you'll want to read that as well. The narrative is fragmentary enough that I suppose you could read this first if you wanted to.
I don't think I should describe the "story" for you, even if I could. Some very obvious themes, carried over from X'ed Out, are: alternate/parallel worlds, relationships, (body) horror, memory, image, father and son, pregnancy, opiates, and art. This work resonates with all kinds of other comics and movies and literature and art, but this is a powerful cohesive work unto itself.
Burns has been telling non-linear narratives since before Black Hole, but this is shaping up to be by far the most advanced yet. It would take a while to map out even the explicitly distinct time/reality frames that the story takes place across so far, and to trace all the resonant images and text that link multiple strands together in various more and less mysterious ways would take much longer.
This fragmentary approach might have something to do with Burns presenting this as a serialized trilogy... also, we're constantly shown comics within comics, comics within dream sequences?, photos (not actual photos) within comics, etc... Overall, just amazing use of images that you can't get out of your head, in a way that curls back and comments on itself many times over. As with Black Hole, Burns shows himself to be a master of the comics medium, and this trilogy looks to be in every way a worthy successor to Black Hole. That said, this is "super weird" and not for everybody. Highest recommendation to those interested in a surreal body horror, non-linear narrative, thoroughly postmodern, beautifully designed, hardcover comic book.
The only complaint I can imagine is (as with the first volume) the length of this book, at 56 pages. Not an issue for me, because this is the way Burns wanted to tell his story, and it freaking works. This is a work to revisit many times.

Charles Burns resumes his surreal story of Doug, a performance artist with a troubled past and a head injury, whose story jumps from different parts of his life and another world seemingly at random. In the "real" world he begins a relationship with a new girl and tells her of his ex, Sarah, who made him wear his dead father's clothes, drugged him, and took pictures of him while he slept. Meanwhile, Doug in the other world is working at a strange facility run by lizard people harvesting the red and white eggs seen in the first book, "X-ed Out". His job is to bring comics to women with oversized bellies called breeders. But something is wrong with this otherworld: the breeders are crying at night and there are toxic smells coming from the corridors.

If you've read the first book in the series "X-ed Out", this second book "The Hive" gives few answers to the reader to help explain the story. It's clear that Doug is working through some severe emotional problems and the book seems to be building toward a hinted-at-but-unrevealed traumatic event, but Burns' storytelling choices deliberately obscure any understanding - possibly to save these answers until the next book or perhaps to remain mysterious so that the reader can come up with their own conclusions.

This David Lynch-ian style of storytelling is at odds with Herge's Tintin books which were straightforward and heavily plot-focused; Burns' anti-Tintin hero Doug remains static throughout with random events happening to him and Doug staying almost stubbornly still. For new readers, the comparisons to Herge/Tintin stem from Burns' imitating Herge's drawing style when telling Doug otherworldly storyline, drawing Doug as a Tintin lookalike.

Burns plays with this scattered storytelling style in Doug's role of comic book delivery man for the breeders, one of whom complains about reading comics out of sequence - the story doesn't make sense if you miss just a couple of issues, she says. The reader feels the same way but unlike Doug is unable to locate the missing issues for his story to make sense.

The story is as confusing as ever and it's almost as if you don't need to have read the first book to pick up the second, though I recommend you do if you're a fan of Charles Burns and/or experimental fiction and imaginative storytelling. Charles Burns shows once again that he is a master of his craft and that is work is pushing the boundaries of sequential art further as a medium. "The Hive" is an excellent continuation of a fascinating and disturbing storyline. It is a puzzling but ambitious book that is definitely worth reading.

Charles Burns is probably best known for his Black Hole series which remains the best starting point for exploring his works. Since then he has started a new trilogy which starts with X'ed Out and continues with this book (book 2 in the series). Supposedly, there will be only one more entry in the series. Burns has spent his career perfecting his artwork and this book presents the best example of his composition, linework, and inking abilities, combined with a coloring technique that is first being presented in this series (his previous work was in black and white). The story content is focused on an exaggerated version of teenage miseries, combined with a strange and creepy fantasy life that seems to be leaking out into the real world. In that sense it is very much of a piece with Black Hole. Many questions are asked, few are answered; and I wouldn't expect everything to be sewn up neatly in the conclusion, either. The binding, paper, and printing are extraordinary in this series, displaying Burns's superb attention to detail in every aspect of this series. Highly recommended.