Printers beware. Spare no black in the work of writer, printmaker and cartoonist Charles Burns. The darkness of his images, which superficially resemble the four-color process used in comic strips, is a darkness of his vision. In his graphic works, Burns pokes the violent underside of human nature, coaxing it out of blackness into a searing light. By mining and darkly subverting the language of the comic books with violence and anxiety, Mr. Burns simultaneously lures his audience into a state of willing acceptance of a familiar narrative form and takes them hostage with unexpectedly complex content. Mr. Burns holds an M.F.A. from the University of California at Davis and a B.F.A. from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. His illustrated novels and cartoons have been widely published in Europe and the United States. His cartoons and illustrations have been featured in numerous magazines such as the New Yorker, Time, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Magazine; and he has exhibited his graphic work nationally and internationally at spaces which include Exit Art, the Alternative Museum and the Drawing Center in New York; and the Musèe des Beaux Arts, in Angoulíme, France. He has also collaborated with choreographer Mark Morris as the designer of the internationally acclaimed production, “The Hard Nut,” a ballet based on the Nutcracker Suite, and he has contributed to the MTV series, “Liquid Television.”