Black Hole is such a weak specimen of comics art that its critical acceptance can only be seen as an indication of a deep lack of sophistication on the part of comics criticism. Black Hole is not merely inferior to its highbrow comics contemporaries, from David Boring to Jimmy Corrigan; it pales even in comparison to the late eighties Silver Surfer Marvel comics that I used to collect out of the back-issue boxes in comic book stores as a kid, with the ads for Chips Ahoy cookies or the latest Nintendo game on the back page.
A critique of Black Hole necessarily entails a critique of the contemporary comics critic; and, in as much as the critic is both the mouthpiece and the teacher of the culture, we thus set out to critique the attitude of American literary culture towards the medium comics.