Dorian Gray - no. 42

Eye Classics

Price: £12.99

History: In West Hampstead there is a fantastic little bookshop, run by shop assistants who discuss poetry while not serving people and with two shelves of "deluxe editions". It's filled with lovely books, and I've never bought a single thing from there because I've never found a Dorian Gray. I complained to Friend 2 about this, as we browsed on my last day there, and she discovered this some half a minute later. It was meant to be.

Look: You might remember my joy and, indeed, surprise at how good my last graphic novel version was. The pencils were gorgeous in their own right, the chosen imagery perfect, the omissions so skillfully done that even I didn't miss them. I haven't read the whole of my new one yet, but there's already an interesting split in my brain. The art is simplistic, childlike, and not in a good way. At face value I dislike it. Strongly. But the use of colours and shadows is good, and there's something surreal in the friendliness of the art - when I start reading it, I do get horribly involved in the world of strange grey shapes and stretched rooms. Full report when it is finished, but I think ultimately I will adore it. It also wins brownie points for crediting Oscar Wilde first on the cover.

Introductions/appendices: A brief intro and author biography.

Some reviews and the like
And Forbidden Planet gushes, with more images which make my heart aquiver.
Captured: 1-6-09