Charles Burns at CoCA

Seattle native Charles Burns will appear at the Center on Contemporary Art Wednesday to sign copies of and promote the new Pantheon collection of his 12-issue comic book series Black Hole, originally published in stapled pamphlet form by everyone's favorite local funny-book manufacturing concern.

While most everyone recognizes Burns as the mastermind behind everything from the slick album cover art for Iggy Pop and Believer magazine, as well as those weird Altoid ads, few people know that he is also the real life basis for Montgomery C. Burns, created by his Evergreen classmate Matt Groening. Probably the reason why so few people know that is because its just an unconfirmed rumor that neither Groening nor Burns have ever confirmed for the record. Perhaps a brave journalist will rise to this challlenge, pose the hard-ball question and enjoy the glory of such an investigative news scoop.

The signing will take place at the aforementioned Center on Contemporary Art (410 Dexter Ave. N., 206-634-3400), 7-9 p.m. Wed., Nov. 9.