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Celluloid
A woman arrives at an apartment, but her partner can’t get away from work.
She is disappointed and settles in for a night alone, but finds a film projector with a reel of film loaded. The film is scratched and blurry, but she can make out a couple making love. When the film burns out, a door is revealed which leads to a misty town square... and a series of fantastical sexual encounters.
But the plot doesn’t really matter. Celluloid is a rare instance (especially among Anglo-Saxons) of a top-flight cartoonist working within erotic — even pornographic, to embrace the word — parameters, with the intent of creating a genuine work of art.
As the artist says: “There are so many comics about violence. I’m not entertained or amused by violence, and I’d rather not have it in my life. Sex, on the other hand, is something the vast majority of us enjoy, yet it rarely seems to be the subject of comics. Pornography is usually bland, repetitive and ugly, and, at most, ‘does the job’. I always wanted to make a book that is pornographic, but is also, I hope, beautiful, and mysterious, and engages the mind.”
Bringing to bear the astonishing range of illustrative and storytelling skills that have served him so well on his collaborations with Neil Gaiman and such solo projects as the (recently re-released) epic graphic novel Cages, Dave McKean forges into new territory with this unique work of erotica.
232 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Dave McKean
445 books690 followersDave McKean is a world-renowned artist, designer, and film director who has illustrated several books for children, including The Savage by David Almond, and Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and The Wolves in the Wall, all by Neil Gaiman. Dave McKean lives in England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
November 2, 2016
This is my week to read a bunch of Dave McKean work, and I'm not done yet. I've seen his Sandman covers, his picture books with Neil Gaiman, and now this. It's wordless/silent, and in the subtitle he calls it erotica. It's about a man and a woman who fail to meet up. The man is alone in some distant place, and the woman finds is also alone, and frustrated. She finds an old porn film on a 16 mm projector, watches it, and various fantasies emerge in various media: Photography, pencil drawings, painting, some realistic, some romantic, some Cubist and others in various experimental forms. Colors are dark, in the main. The woman is almost never--even in her fantasies--alone. We get to see a range of McKean styles and references to others who have depicted sex and sensuality in art: Klimt, Picasso. It's not disturbing, but neither is it really pornographic, in my view. It's more about the idea of desire, of fantasy. It's less a story than a series of images. Art is sexy to McKean, and maybe less so conventional naked bodies. And the two separated lovers? It's as if to say sex is more about the longing than the act.
Just at a glance most people didn't like it, if I can trust the Goodreads rating average, 3.56 as of today. I can see that; as erotica it disappoints, I guess. I liked the sections with all the fruit best. Some of it is really lovely and the tone is at times mesmerizing, though at times a bit too abstract.
Just at a glance most people didn't like it, if I can trust the Goodreads rating average, 3.56 as of today. I can see that; as erotica it disappoints, I guess. I liked the sections with all the fruit best. Some of it is really lovely and the tone is at times mesmerizing, though at times a bit too abstract.
June 26, 2011
I think the word I'm looking for here, which the spell checker will underline in red, is "overthinking." A good example of what I mean is the back cover of the book, which is the body of a nude, faceless woman pressed against a borderless sheet of latex--because, of course, this book is sold shrink-wrapped, so the image makes a kind of clever visual pun out of the fact.
It's a cliché of course, but nevertheless true that the brain is the body's most important sexual organ. However, it's also possible to, for want of a better term, cock-block yourself with your own mind. Not that there's anything even remotely resembling cock-blocking in here. But, as beautiful as this book is, it almost feels entirely too well thought out, to the point where even the "wild" parts don't seem all that stimulating.
Still, this isn't a one-, two-, or even three-star review, mainly on the strength of Dave McKean's artwork, and also (but especially) because the woman he depicts isn't "conventionally" beautiful. She IS beautiful, but more because the reader/viewer can see the unnamed woman's inner life on the outside of her body--an advantage in having an artist as deft as McKean rendering your fictional form.
But--and this is almost certainly the fault of the internet--nothing's shocking, to coin a phrase. And it's not that McKean doesn't try--actually, at time, he is trying to a fault. Which brings me back to overthinking. In the end, sadly, nothing's less erotic than overthinking.
It's a cliché of course, but nevertheless true that the brain is the body's most important sexual organ. However, it's also possible to, for want of a better term, cock-block yourself with your own mind. Not that there's anything even remotely resembling cock-blocking in here. But, as beautiful as this book is, it almost feels entirely too well thought out, to the point where even the "wild" parts don't seem all that stimulating.
Still, this isn't a one-, two-, or even three-star review, mainly on the strength of Dave McKean's artwork, and also (but especially) because the woman he depicts isn't "conventionally" beautiful. She IS beautiful, but more because the reader/viewer can see the unnamed woman's inner life on the outside of her body--an advantage in having an artist as deft as McKean rendering your fictional form.
But--and this is almost certainly the fault of the internet--nothing's shocking, to coin a phrase. And it's not that McKean doesn't try--actually, at time, he is trying to a fault. Which brings me back to overthinking. In the end, sadly, nothing's less erotic than overthinking.
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January 29, 2020I saw this come through at the library and it caught my eye because DAVE MCKEAN. Imagine my surprise when I was bothered by Celluloid's overall ambiguity. But those pencil sketches? My G*d. Beautiful.
July 22, 2011
This was kind of "meh" for me. Lovely and expressive illustrations, as always from McKean, but the story was a thin frame to hang these erotic images on.
June 30, 2019
(This review was originally published by GraphicNovelReport.com on July 6, 2012)
Dave McKean, an artist best known for his work on Batman: Arkham Asylum and frequent collaborations with Neil Gaiman on Sandman and the film MirrorMask, breaks away from the mainstream with Celluloid, a finely-tuned and erotic graphic novel.
Erotica can be a fickle, alienating genre. In American culture, it's generally something to be shied away from, typically in favor of far more obscene acts of violence. Improperly crafted, it can turn away more people than it can attract and may end up being more embarrassing than stimulating. As such, it's a risky venture for a well-known, mainstream artist like Dave McKean to turn to. Many may immediately dismiss his latest as a work of puerile deviancy, but those sorts likely wouldn't even bother examining the book before casting such aspersions upon it. Although it is most certainly, and openly, erotic, Celluloid manages to be so much more than its label implies.
The book portrays a sexual odyssey in which a woman discovers an old film projector in her apartment. She is surprised to find it loaded with a pornographic movie, but as it plays, it begins to open a door into another world. Curious, she steps through and discovers a fantastic cityscape populated with phantom couples making love, along with another film projector that pulls her deeper into this new world.
What follows is a story of sexual growth and empowerment. She begins the story as a voyeur, but as she embraces the newly revealed and expanding worlds of physical pleasure, her self-confidence grows and she finds the strength to not be a subject of voyeurism herself. The landscapes and colors of the world change around her as she grows bolder in her participation, and McKean's artwork gains greater dimensionality as his central character grows more assertive.
Without any dialogue or captions, Celluloid is strictly a visual narrative. It has a very film-like feel to it, which is appropriate given the MacGuffin that launches both the readers and the book's character on its journey. The book unfolds like a spool of film, each page like frames in the reel. The pace of the story is left up to the reader, but McKean has created such lush visuals that many will want to linger and examine the intricacies of the imagery presented. One particularly compelling page comes early in the story and presents the nude woman watching the film while ghost-like hands and arms reach out toward her from nowhere. It's an impressive, striking piece of art on multiple levels.
McKean combines several artistic mediums in order to tell his tale. His characters are stylized sketches, but as the story develops, he begins to create collages that merge his drawings with digital paintings and photographs of models and still-life objects. Without any words to give us clues as to what the female lead is thinking or feeling, McKean relies on distorted perspective and abstract visuals to project emotion and to create a shared sense of journey between the readers and the woman. The artwork becomes an incredible thing of beauty that showcases the interplay between light, shadow, and color, taking on surrealistic and expressionistic styles. The story is inflected with supernatural metaphors, while characters are paralleled and juxtaposed against photographed objects. By combining these photographs with illustration, the story rises to a new level, creating an increasing sense of dimensionality that exhibits the woman's growth as a sexual being.
While Celluloid is certainly an adults-only venture, it hardly seems fair to label it pornography, a title that has become akin to the dirtiest of words in American groupthink. It is rife with sexual imagery, but it is so well crafted and artfully composed that it would be shameful for the book to be lost amongst lesser, smuttier works. Rather than being raunchy or demeaning or exploitative, McKean has taken the high road and created a work that rises above the genre of simple erotica and rests comfortably on an artistic level. Many of the pages are so well crafted in their surrealistic imagery that they could easily hang beside Picasso. McKean has boldly stepped away from the confines of mainstream comic books with this endeavor, and the result is a masterpiece of eroticism that relies heavily on intellect and emotion, rather than just mere arousal or titillation.
Dave McKean, an artist best known for his work on Batman: Arkham Asylum and frequent collaborations with Neil Gaiman on Sandman and the film MirrorMask, breaks away from the mainstream with Celluloid, a finely-tuned and erotic graphic novel.
Erotica can be a fickle, alienating genre. In American culture, it's generally something to be shied away from, typically in favor of far more obscene acts of violence. Improperly crafted, it can turn away more people than it can attract and may end up being more embarrassing than stimulating. As such, it's a risky venture for a well-known, mainstream artist like Dave McKean to turn to. Many may immediately dismiss his latest as a work of puerile deviancy, but those sorts likely wouldn't even bother examining the book before casting such aspersions upon it. Although it is most certainly, and openly, erotic, Celluloid manages to be so much more than its label implies.
The book portrays a sexual odyssey in which a woman discovers an old film projector in her apartment. She is surprised to find it loaded with a pornographic movie, but as it plays, it begins to open a door into another world. Curious, she steps through and discovers a fantastic cityscape populated with phantom couples making love, along with another film projector that pulls her deeper into this new world.
What follows is a story of sexual growth and empowerment. She begins the story as a voyeur, but as she embraces the newly revealed and expanding worlds of physical pleasure, her self-confidence grows and she finds the strength to not be a subject of voyeurism herself. The landscapes and colors of the world change around her as she grows bolder in her participation, and McKean's artwork gains greater dimensionality as his central character grows more assertive.
Without any dialogue or captions, Celluloid is strictly a visual narrative. It has a very film-like feel to it, which is appropriate given the MacGuffin that launches both the readers and the book's character on its journey. The book unfolds like a spool of film, each page like frames in the reel. The pace of the story is left up to the reader, but McKean has created such lush visuals that many will want to linger and examine the intricacies of the imagery presented. One particularly compelling page comes early in the story and presents the nude woman watching the film while ghost-like hands and arms reach out toward her from nowhere. It's an impressive, striking piece of art on multiple levels.
McKean combines several artistic mediums in order to tell his tale. His characters are stylized sketches, but as the story develops, he begins to create collages that merge his drawings with digital paintings and photographs of models and still-life objects. Without any words to give us clues as to what the female lead is thinking or feeling, McKean relies on distorted perspective and abstract visuals to project emotion and to create a shared sense of journey between the readers and the woman. The artwork becomes an incredible thing of beauty that showcases the interplay between light, shadow, and color, taking on surrealistic and expressionistic styles. The story is inflected with supernatural metaphors, while characters are paralleled and juxtaposed against photographed objects. By combining these photographs with illustration, the story rises to a new level, creating an increasing sense of dimensionality that exhibits the woman's growth as a sexual being.
While Celluloid is certainly an adults-only venture, it hardly seems fair to label it pornography, a title that has become akin to the dirtiest of words in American groupthink. It is rife with sexual imagery, but it is so well crafted and artfully composed that it would be shameful for the book to be lost amongst lesser, smuttier works. Rather than being raunchy or demeaning or exploitative, McKean has taken the high road and created a work that rises above the genre of simple erotica and rests comfortably on an artistic level. Many of the pages are so well crafted in their surrealistic imagery that they could easily hang beside Picasso. McKean has boldly stepped away from the confines of mainstream comic books with this endeavor, and the result is a masterpiece of eroticism that relies heavily on intellect and emotion, rather than just mere arousal or titillation.
May 11, 2020
Experimental erotica sounds like quite possibly the most niche and inaccessible format for an artist to tackle...until one adds the words, Dave McKean. I only recently became aware of the existence of this book and because Dave McKean is one of my favorite artists I tracked it down eager to read this book.
McKean's work is, as always, weird and wonderful and sublime and truly it's own animal, but most important it compliments the genre of this piece. This story of a woman's otherworldly, and quite possibly inter-dimensional sexual journey through a magical celluloid camera is told simply through a series of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and multi-media images that regular fans of McKean's artwork will appreciate.
What's perhaps most important is that this book feels like what erotica as a genre can and should be about because, even in the lack of a linear narrative, the tone remains the same. This is a sexy dream transfixed into a comic book, and by the end the reader may wonder who's dream it ultimately was, but then again that may just be part of the fantasy.
McKean's work is, as always, weird and wonderful and sublime and truly it's own animal, but most important it compliments the genre of this piece. This story of a woman's otherworldly, and quite possibly inter-dimensional sexual journey through a magical celluloid camera is told simply through a series of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and multi-media images that regular fans of McKean's artwork will appreciate.
What's perhaps most important is that this book feels like what erotica as a genre can and should be about because, even in the lack of a linear narrative, the tone remains the same. This is a sexy dream transfixed into a comic book, and by the end the reader may wonder who's dream it ultimately was, but then again that may just be part of the fantasy.
June 5, 2012
So very disappointing. The art is great, and yes, erotica could look like this. But excuse me, I want more story to my story! I'm reading a graphic from McKean who can illustrate the hell out of other's work, but I don't think his grasp of plot really allows these pictures to go from naughty pictures to true erotic literature.
Tell me I'm missing something, and I'd try again, but I find this boring.
Tell me I'm missing something, and I'd try again, but I find this boring.
September 13, 2011
I want (and intend) to give this a second read. I went through it fairly quickly, and it didn't grab me the way I thought it might.
October 17, 2011
I tried not to read it too quickly. But... it just didn't grab me. Will set aside and try again someday.
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October 3, 2019As with the film projector at the heart of this reverie, there's something strangely old-fashioned about a wordless (seriously, not even on the inside flaps*) hardcover of racy images; it reminds one how long ago it was that Dave McKean was getting in censorship scuffles with proto-Vertigo DC about a single nipple. Though of course, that tide has changed too (do you have any idea how annoying it is, as someone who hates the so-called Dark Knight, that what was once one of my favourite imprints was killed by Batman's todger?). Strange too to realise that for all the obvious parallels between their work, I'd never particularly registered Dali in McKean's style like I do here, let alone Mapplethorpe on the fruitier (literally) sections. Strangest still, though, to realise only once I started reading that it's set this week. Compared to the monumental likes of Cages, this is very much fluff, albeit filthy fluff, but McKean art has sold me on plenty worse over the years.
*Hur hur.
*Hur hur.
February 19, 2024
There are no words in this book so I cannot say that I read it. It is an illustrated erotic story (according to its cover, although I would say it is quite pornographic) by the British author Dave McKean. I know McKean from his projects in comic-books, where text is relevant for understanding the story.
Here, though, it is perfectly possible to know what is happening because McKean is a great storyteller. I dare say it is a sexual fantasy of a woman who is alone at home, tries to have sex with a man, and this delays the encounter for later. Frustrated, she sees an old cinema projector and starts it. The rest is sex.
I found the pictures fabulous, especially for the way the color is used by McKean in very imaginative ways, as he does with photographs that he includes in the pictures.
An adult fantasy illustrated story that is a beautiful piece of art.
Here, though, it is perfectly possible to know what is happening because McKean is a great storyteller. I dare say it is a sexual fantasy of a woman who is alone at home, tries to have sex with a man, and this delays the encounter for later. Frustrated, she sees an old cinema projector and starts it. The rest is sex.
I found the pictures fabulous, especially for the way the color is used by McKean in very imaginative ways, as he does with photographs that he includes in the pictures.
An adult fantasy illustrated story that is a beautiful piece of art.
April 5, 2018
It's a good time for porno comics from respected creators. McKean's Celluloid is one of the best. Lacking the literary ambitions that (at times) bogged down Lost Girls, Celluloid follows a woman who comes home, finds an old film strip with erotic imagery, and is transported into a fever dream of sexual imagining. There's no pretense, just excellent McKean artwork (penwork, multimedia, photography - it's all there in true McKean fashion). It works as eroticism and as a work of art. Worth checking out.
McKean doesn't bog it down with words; it's pure imagery, meant to mean whatever you need it to mean.
McKean doesn't bog it down with words; it's pure imagery, meant to mean whatever you need it to mean.
June 13, 2024
I'm a freak. I'm a freak!
Moral of the story: when your partner wants you to leave work and come over to the apartment, you better do it because she won't stop at masturbating in the bathtub; she is going to give a demon oral sex. And that's life!
But, in all seriousness, the way this moves through different art forms is very cool, and the art is gorgeous: it moves from being classic graphic novel/cartoon, to surreal art, to photos, to more. I don't have the art education to really comment; but I can say that I enjoyed this.
Would have liked there to be perhaps a bit more to the ending?
Moral of the story: when your partner wants you to leave work and come over to the apartment, you better do it because she won't stop at masturbating in the bathtub; she is going to give a demon oral sex. And that's life!
But, in all seriousness, the way this moves through different art forms is very cool, and the art is gorgeous: it moves from being classic graphic novel/cartoon, to surreal art, to photos, to more. I don't have the art education to really comment; but I can say that I enjoyed this.
Would have liked there to be perhaps a bit more to the ending?
March 22, 2019
No words and not much of a story. I loved the variety of images (pencil drawings, paintings, photography, mixed media) but was underwhelmed with the concept and execution. There didn't seem to be much (anything?) to take away from the composition as a whole, except perhaps a sense of sex as something simultaneously hot and hellish, devouring and voyeuristic.
January 22, 2021
McKean definitely achieved his aim: a comic that is both pornographic and artistic. So yes, it was beautiful, but it felt too short and like it was lacking something. I didn't get any sense of depth, either in the story or from the characters. Am I glad I read it? Yes. Would I read it again? Probably not.
July 4, 2023
Surreal and highly erotic. Beautiful artwork with an amazing use of mixed media. Wordless novel yet not silent, although I wish for the plot to be longer. Each fantasy is represented in a different artistic style and throughout the pages we see several references to art movements which also takes us through an art timeline that is worth enjoying and paying attention to.
January 4, 2019
Una novela gráfica erotica 🤔
Si lo es, no requiere palabras, es de esos libros que no puedes leer abiertamente en todos lados y que tienes que buscar un lugar en donde no te interrumpan. El diseño es genial.
Si lo es, no requiere palabras, es de esos libros que no puedes leer abiertamente en todos lados y que tienes que buscar un lugar en donde no te interrumpan. El diseño es genial.
February 28, 2019
Is it rude to say I loved this for the attention to materiality? The book has such an amazing way with how pages work and also the mixed media composition of the images printed on the pages.
January 22, 2021
واضح إنها كانت سبوبة!
December 3, 2021
Utterly gorgeous as one would expect from McKean. Too bad the plot was thin. Worth reading nonetheless.
October 26, 2022
Non una classica graphic novel, ma un silent-book.
Le stelline che ho attribuito valgono soltanto per l'originalità dei disegni, sul contesto erotico beh ... preferisco stendere un velo pietoso.
Le stelline che ho attribuito valgono soltanto per l'originalità dei disegni, sul contesto erotico beh ... preferisco stendere un velo pietoso.
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October 9, 2014Dave McKean’s CELLULOID has a simple set up: a man and a woman are unable to keep a romantic rendezvous. The man is stuck in a corporate office, perhaps in a different city, and the woman finds herself alone in a flat or hotel room, lonely and frustrated. She discovers an old-fashioned projector with film of a couple having sex, and while watching it falls into a dream wherein she herself has sex in a variety of surreal settings with a strange menagerie of partners. The book’s 200-plus pages are thus a record of her escapades depicted in McKean’s trademark styles—collage, drawing, painting, and photography—with influences ranging from Picasso and Klimt to Dubuffet and Arcimboldo.
CELLULOID isn’t a traditional comic: completely wordless, almost every page is a single panel, and while there’s some plot trajectory the volume is more art book than narrative. McKean is out to tease and tickle our senses, not tell a story. “Sexy” is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. While the book features copious nudity and intercourse, I didn’t find it especially arousing; the dreamy sex scenes felt stiff and clichéd. The real eroticism of CELLULOID may be the sensuality of image making: McKean seems more turned on by wet paint and Photoshop than naked bodies.
McKean’s first significant “solo” project (following a string of successful collaborations with Neil Gaiman) was CAGES, published more than twenty years ago. A tremendously ambitious effort, CAGES never achieves its potential or aspirations: the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts, even though the parts are often magnificent. I was excited to see what McKean might do with his second solo effort, and disappointed that Celluloid left me a bit cold. The book didn’t turn me on, but it also didn’t impress me with its artistic or literary virtuosity. CELLULOID reads like a sketchbook exercise elaborated into a lavish 200-plus-page book, where the substance doesn’t live up to the glossy production. (Apparently McKean originally planned to release the book anonymously, in a small edition, and it might have been better as a “private” project.)
While most of CELLULOID is executed in lush color-saturated mixed media, the “frame” narrative of the man and woman who didn’t connect is drawn in McKean’s exquisite black-and-white pen-and ink style, reminiscent of Breccia and Mattotti. The man and woman are approaching middle age and they are not conventionally beautiful: she looks more like an aging Schiele girl rather than the centerfold queen McKean employed for the photo sections of the book. CELLULOID concludes with the man returning to the empty flat wondering where his partner had gone. I found myself wishing McKean had devoted CELLULOID to exploring those two characters—the palpable tension in their relationship, and why exactly they weren’t able to keep their assignation—and left the sex for our imagination, where it would probably have been a lot more erotic.
CELLULOID isn’t a traditional comic: completely wordless, almost every page is a single panel, and while there’s some plot trajectory the volume is more art book than narrative. McKean is out to tease and tickle our senses, not tell a story. “Sexy” is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. While the book features copious nudity and intercourse, I didn’t find it especially arousing; the dreamy sex scenes felt stiff and clichéd. The real eroticism of CELLULOID may be the sensuality of image making: McKean seems more turned on by wet paint and Photoshop than naked bodies.
McKean’s first significant “solo” project (following a string of successful collaborations with Neil Gaiman) was CAGES, published more than twenty years ago. A tremendously ambitious effort, CAGES never achieves its potential or aspirations: the whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts, even though the parts are often magnificent. I was excited to see what McKean might do with his second solo effort, and disappointed that Celluloid left me a bit cold. The book didn’t turn me on, but it also didn’t impress me with its artistic or literary virtuosity. CELLULOID reads like a sketchbook exercise elaborated into a lavish 200-plus-page book, where the substance doesn’t live up to the glossy production. (Apparently McKean originally planned to release the book anonymously, in a small edition, and it might have been better as a “private” project.)
While most of CELLULOID is executed in lush color-saturated mixed media, the “frame” narrative of the man and woman who didn’t connect is drawn in McKean’s exquisite black-and-white pen-and ink style, reminiscent of Breccia and Mattotti. The man and woman are approaching middle age and they are not conventionally beautiful: she looks more like an aging Schiele girl rather than the centerfold queen McKean employed for the photo sections of the book. CELLULOID concludes with the man returning to the empty flat wondering where his partner had gone. I found myself wishing McKean had devoted CELLULOID to exploring those two characters—the palpable tension in their relationship, and why exactly they weren’t able to keep their assignation—and left the sex for our imagination, where it would probably have been a lot more erotic.
December 23, 2015
Dave McKean is name with which most modern day comics aficionados are familiar, if only for his being a long tie collaborator to Neil Gaiman, with both a few graphic novels and picture books to their names, and McKean's unforgettable contribution as cover artist to Gaiman's magnum opus: The Sandman. Here is one of McKean's few comics ventures on his own -- in fact, one of only two longer pieces (and the shorter one of those). It is correctly labelled as an erotic graphic novel, and is certainly aimed neither at children nor people to whom nudity and visual depictions of sexual acts is deemed offensive. McKean is producing art that is clearly meant to be titillating and mostly, in my humble opinion, succeeds -- albeit, primarily within a heteronormative paradigm.
To the sensitive, this would likely be deemed pornographic in nature, re-activating the debate on the distinction between erotica and pornography -- or perhaps even if there is one. There is a narrative drive here that is absolutely secondary to the act of visual titillation, much like it has been argued that pornography as a genre always subsumes any narrative elements in favour of spectacles of a sexual nature. However, the repression of narrative drives is not exclusive to pornography, and McKean's work is both highly poetic (in entirely wordless manner) and tied into traditions of visual art -- as finished artworks but also as sets of artistic methods.
What story there is here is brief and symbolic: a woman and a man are trying to schedule meeting, which is obviously set to take place later; upon which the woman takes a bath where she indulgences in a sexual fantasy, which turns into a journey through a set of fantasies or fantasy realms utilising a variety of artistic techniques and styles. It is this journey -- itself both highly conceptualised meta-art of sorts and inventive erotica -- moving between sketches and paintings, photography and photoshop work, which is the focus of the piece. And it is not primarily narrative in its nature, but poetic and erotic in a highly intertwined manner.
In this sense, I do not think I have read anything quite like it, and I am not actually sure that it appeals particularly much to my usually very narrative-centred sensibilities. And yet, its poetry, its sheer visual power and inventiveness is a tour de force that cannot be denied. If you like McKean's visual sensibilities, and providing that you are not put off by graphic depictions of sex, I do recommend this odd but fascinating piece of visual poetry.
To the sensitive, this would likely be deemed pornographic in nature, re-activating the debate on the distinction between erotica and pornography -- or perhaps even if there is one. There is a narrative drive here that is absolutely secondary to the act of visual titillation, much like it has been argued that pornography as a genre always subsumes any narrative elements in favour of spectacles of a sexual nature. However, the repression of narrative drives is not exclusive to pornography, and McKean's work is both highly poetic (in entirely wordless manner) and tied into traditions of visual art -- as finished artworks but also as sets of artistic methods.
What story there is here is brief and symbolic: a woman and a man are trying to schedule meeting, which is obviously set to take place later; upon which the woman takes a bath where she indulgences in a sexual fantasy, which turns into a journey through a set of fantasies or fantasy realms utilising a variety of artistic techniques and styles. It is this journey -- itself both highly conceptualised meta-art of sorts and inventive erotica -- moving between sketches and paintings, photography and photoshop work, which is the focus of the piece. And it is not primarily narrative in its nature, but poetic and erotic in a highly intertwined manner.
In this sense, I do not think I have read anything quite like it, and I am not actually sure that it appeals particularly much to my usually very narrative-centred sensibilities. And yet, its poetry, its sheer visual power and inventiveness is a tour de force that cannot be denied. If you like McKean's visual sensibilities, and providing that you are not put off by graphic depictions of sex, I do recommend this odd but fascinating piece of visual poetry.
September 19, 2011
There are very few living artists today who I would use the term "Renaissance Man" to describe. Clive Barker, for example - imaginative writer, visionary artist, dabbler in theatre and film. Dave McKean is another - painter, designer, filmmaker - and his graphic novel Celluloid is one more reason (among many) why.
Celluloid is McKean's exploration into the realm of erotic fiction, and typical of McKean's work, he does so with an eye to the fantastic and the strange. This tale of a woman who walks through a doorway created by a film projection into world after world of sexual experience, featuring impossible anatomies and unexpected scenarios, is not your typical erotic story. McKean takes a somewhat trite setup and turns it into something adventurous and new.
And amazingly, he does it without words.
Celluloid is told completely through McKean's stunning images - sometimes photographs, sometimes painting, sometimes collage, sometimes just a few sketched lines...often a blending of all of these. McKean as a visual stylist is unmatched, and he brings all his different talents to bear here.
Whether it's depicting a shadowy, faceless man dominating his masked partner, or coupling with a woman with grapes for hair and a dozen breasts, or intimate explorations of hands and fingers and skin, McKean's images bring new life to the familiar. What the imagery sometimes lacks in narrative drive it makes up for in powerful impressions and sensations of sexuality.
Celluloid is sexually graphic without being pornographic, both sensual and sexual, a study in the exploration of the different forms of passion. It's something kind of magical to do all this in the graphic novel art form, and nobody but Dave McKean could pull it off quite like this.
Celluloid is McKean's exploration into the realm of erotic fiction, and typical of McKean's work, he does so with an eye to the fantastic and the strange. This tale of a woman who walks through a doorway created by a film projection into world after world of sexual experience, featuring impossible anatomies and unexpected scenarios, is not your typical erotic story. McKean takes a somewhat trite setup and turns it into something adventurous and new.
And amazingly, he does it without words.
Celluloid is told completely through McKean's stunning images - sometimes photographs, sometimes painting, sometimes collage, sometimes just a few sketched lines...often a blending of all of these. McKean as a visual stylist is unmatched, and he brings all his different talents to bear here.
Whether it's depicting a shadowy, faceless man dominating his masked partner, or coupling with a woman with grapes for hair and a dozen breasts, or intimate explorations of hands and fingers and skin, McKean's images bring new life to the familiar. What the imagery sometimes lacks in narrative drive it makes up for in powerful impressions and sensations of sexuality.
Celluloid is sexually graphic without being pornographic, both sensual and sexual, a study in the exploration of the different forms of passion. It's something kind of magical to do all this in the graphic novel art form, and nobody but Dave McKean could pull it off quite like this.
February 16, 2013
This is an amazing book! The plot itself is thin, but that's not what matters in this book. It's a simple story of two lovers that can't or won't meet. The girl settles for a night of fun with herself, and starts to look at an old erotic film on reel. When the celluloid film breaks, it reveals a door. That door brings her ever more close to real ecstasy.
This book certainly is a case of "it's not what you said, but how you said it".
The way McKean tells the simple story is far from simple. Not only does it symbolize the gradual fulfillment of the girl's sexual fantasies (from mere pencil strokes to actual photographs at the end), the journey to the photo-realistic climax is an amazing one. McKean not only takes us on a trip filled with ecstasy, but he also takes us on a trip through art history. Starting out with primitive drawings - not unlike cavemen drawings - we travel through all sorts of art periods. From impressionism to expressionism to surrealism and even film and photography: the registers McKean uses to tell his story is nothing short of amazing. He truly shows himself a skilled artist that feels at home in every style possible. At the same time, he's not just a copy cat. His own distinct style echoes through every page of this book.
The story in itself might not be the most elaborate, but the drawings resonate an abundance of layers of meaning. The book is an intertextual playground that is worth every bit of your attention. I'll surely have to read it over and over again to get as much as possible. The images convey too much to take it all in at once.
Exciting, in way more ways than one!
This book certainly is a case of "it's not what you said, but how you said it".
The way McKean tells the simple story is far from simple. Not only does it symbolize the gradual fulfillment of the girl's sexual fantasies (from mere pencil strokes to actual photographs at the end), the journey to the photo-realistic climax is an amazing one. McKean not only takes us on a trip filled with ecstasy, but he also takes us on a trip through art history. Starting out with primitive drawings - not unlike cavemen drawings - we travel through all sorts of art periods. From impressionism to expressionism to surrealism and even film and photography: the registers McKean uses to tell his story is nothing short of amazing. He truly shows himself a skilled artist that feels at home in every style possible. At the same time, he's not just a copy cat. His own distinct style echoes through every page of this book.
The story in itself might not be the most elaborate, but the drawings resonate an abundance of layers of meaning. The book is an intertextual playground that is worth every bit of your attention. I'll surely have to read it over and over again to get as much as possible. The images convey too much to take it all in at once.
Exciting, in way more ways than one!
February 3, 2016
Не сделать из эротической графической новеллы порнографическую плюху тяжело, но я не зря всей душой радела за МакКина. Это, конечно, не волки в стенах, и не папа, променянный на рыбку, но тоже крайне интересно.
Экстатическое путешествие, скрывающее в своих недрах многослойность. Некоторые моменты показались мне излишне disturbing, особенно в части с демоном, зато сравнение с фруктами такое.. терпкое. Я вначале тушевалась, но после первых страниц разошлась, прилипла будь здоров. Тут мне и метаморфозы, и практически осязаемая чувственность на страницах, и смешение стилей и самых смелых желаний. Ярлык WEIRD прилагается.
Если раньше я восторгалась плодами совместного творчества МакКина и Геймана, то теперь появилась возможность поглядеть на первого во всей красе, и.. это совсем не то. Другое. К этому надо привыкнуть – полное отсутствие диалогов, общение с книгой на языке одной графической компоненты. Дрейф в нескольких плоскостях без какого-либо движения, сплошная нега, каждый стиль погружает в новый оттенок чувства. Прекрасно оформленный архиэротичный альбом фантазий, который не стыдно держать на полке.
Пара страниц 18+
annikeh.net
Экстатическое путешествие, скрывающее в своих недрах многослойность. Некоторые моменты показались мне излишне disturbing, особенно в части с демоном, зато сравнение с фруктами такое.. терпкое. Я вначале тушевалась, но после первых страниц разошлась, прилипла будь здоров. Тут мне и метаморфозы, и практически осязаемая чувственность на страницах, и смешение стилей и самых смелых желаний. Ярлык WEIRD прилагается.
Если раньше я восторгалась плодами совместного творчества МакКина и Геймана, то теперь появилась возможность поглядеть на первого во всей красе, и.. это совсем не то. Другое. К этому надо привыкнуть – полное отсутствие диалогов, общение с книгой на языке одной графической компоненты. Дрейф в нескольких плоскостях без какого-либо движения, сплошная нега, каждый стиль погружает в новый оттенок чувства. Прекрасно оформленный архиэротичный альбом фантазий, который не стыдно держать на полке.
Пара страниц 18+
annikeh.net
June 19, 2011
It's great to see a new graphic novel by Dave McKean. He's so well-known as an illustrator and cover artist, but we rarely see his sequential art (and even more rarely illustrating his own stories). Celluloid, told primarily in single-panel pages, is a dream/nightmare-like erotic hallucination, featuring a series of sexual scenes illustrated in a variety of styles. The art is gorgeous, and show McKean as a master at the top of his game.
As for the story... I'm not sure I understood it. I think it's going to take another couple of reads at least. Either I'm missing stuff, or it's just a series of images. (Or maybe both, and I'm just failing to make connections.) I can follow the flow of the story from panel to panel and page to page. I'm just not sure what it all means. (There's nothing wrong with artwork that challenges the reader. I'm just not sure how exactly I'm being challenged.)
So high points for the art, and for the potential of the storytelling, but lower marks for clarity or accessibility.
As for the story... I'm not sure I understood it. I think it's going to take another couple of reads at least. Either I'm missing stuff, or it's just a series of images. (Or maybe both, and I'm just failing to make connections.) I can follow the flow of the story from panel to panel and page to page. I'm just not sure what it all means. (There's nothing wrong with artwork that challenges the reader. I'm just not sure how exactly I'm being challenged.)
So high points for the art, and for the potential of the storytelling, but lower marks for clarity or accessibility.
October 5, 2015
Compelling artwork. Begins with pen-and-ink with some watercolor, and as the story progresses and the protagonist moves on to her next sexual encounter, includes charcoal, photography, digital art, etc. There're no words to this work, leaving the story (and its cryptic ending) up to readers' imaginations. This is perhaps a book that's meant to be gone through slowly, savored even, but alas I'm an impatient type. Wasn't into the graped-haired chick with the zillions of boobs -- that read as the least erotic encounter and more like a joke from Kung-Pow! Enter the Fist. (But I did enjoy the suggesting fruit photos.) Endings often don't sit right for me, and this isn't an exception. I felt like the woman was drawn differently throughout the book (is she young? old? is not being able to tell the point?) so the ending makes me wonder what is actually going on.
February 16, 2012
How to put down why I think this book is something worthy to pick up when it's all pictures and all about sex? I guess the easiest way of describing it is pictures and movement that convey a simple dark erotic story. I found it fascinating from a comic/visual story tellers perspective. (And a bit of the fine artist in me had a field day.) It explores this very simple concept of mixed media artwork over 200+ pages. However, i don't think the average reader will get this or enjoy it. PEople will be turned off from the symbolic sex, and no words. However if you want a study in pictures to solely tell you a dirty metaphysical story, then this is your book. Least that's the best way I can describe this unique book.
September 30, 2015
I'm a fan of Dave McKean's works with Neil Gaiman, which is why I pulled this off the shelf without a second glance. Had I looked and seen the subtitle 'an erotic graphic novel,' I probably would have put it back. And been happier. This wordless tale of a woman having fantasies or experiences through a film with all manner of creatures didn't come across as erotic to me. Some of the art is beautiful, in McKean's signature style. But most of it is loose hand drawings or in some cases actual photos, and the story included just did not move me toward anything but disgust. I'm obviously not the target audience for this work, and I can see some merits in it, but it didn't speak to me, and I can't recommend it to anyone else.
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