Celluloid by Dave McKean

It's no secret how much I love the art of Dave McKean. Just look at my blog's header and you'll see how much I love him. That's an image of his up there. So any time I hear of any new project that he's involved in, I just about go gaga. As I did with Celluloid. I preordered it as soon as I heard about it. And was happily surprised when the release date was pushed up!! I knew from the time I ordered this that it was an erotic graphic novel. And I can't help but think that Mr. McKean was having fun with the term "graphic novel" here :p Before I go into my review, I feel that I should tell everyone that this novel is VERY graphic! For those who are turned off by images of nude people engaged in sex acts, this is not for you. For everyone else, this novel is gorgeous from the first page to the last...consider it a sort of psychedelic sex journey. There are no words in this story and there doesn't need to be. The story opens with a male and a female, lovers presumably..maybe a married couple, penciling in time for each other into their respective calendars. After hanging up the phone, the woman goes to soak in the tub and then moves into her bedroom where she turns on an 8mm film projector. The film shows a couple having sex and the woman watching this literally gets drawn into the film. She enters a world of sex sex and more sex and is drawn into other worlds from that one...each dimension/world has it's own art theme to it. As usual, the art in here is absolutely stunning. And I have to say that McKean captures the human body SO well. It's very easily identifiable as Dave McKean art which makes me more happy than I can say. I could stare at his images for hours. This book is hot and sensual and sexy, but retains it's beauty at the same time. Though there are things depicted in pornography, the book itself never seems like pornography. This is definitely art in the art vs. pornography debate. And it's beautifully done art too.