Luis Royo (born 1954) is a Spanish artist, best known for his fantasy illustrations published in numerous art books, magazines, and various other media including book and music CD covers, video games and Tarot cards.
Beginning his career as a furniture designer, he was attracted to the comics industry in the late 1970s, and nine years later turned to art as a full time career. Within a few years, he was publishing art in many magazines as well as providing cover illustrations for a number of publishers.
I picked this up thinking it was some kind of graphic novel, but it's mostly just art. There is some kind of short narrative, but it is mostly just pretentious nonsense.
The art, however, is fantastic (it is Luis Royo, after all).
Luis Royo opens this collection with a "how to read this" introduction, which includes a very flowery description of self-gratification. After all, a person only needs one hand to turn pages in a book.
Divided into five "Acts", this book is effectively a collection of erotic artwork from Royo. The individual acts are meant to contain some kind of thematic connection, which is coupled to some poetic bits of writing. The words don't really mean much, I think most would agree they're pretty much nonsense. The artwork is truly splendid though, with Royo flexing the intricate linework and luxurious painted sequences. The individual pieces vary in their magnitude of graphic quality, with some art pieces featuring a fair amount of gore and violence, whilst others are more sultry and sensual. It's a beautiful looking book, but I wouldn't use this to gauge Royo's ability as a storyteller.
После запрета издания комикса прочитала все, что нашла. Правда, слово "прочитала" тут слишком громкое, ведь там вообще нет текста. Ройо рисует отменно, но тема секса между красавицей и чудовищем кажется мне затасканной, а вот bdsm-намеки удаются ему хорошо, причем именно потому, что тема практически не развивается, а остается на уровне своеобразно обрисованной виктимности.