Le Gun 1-3 (Graphic Novel)

By: Various

Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher (October 28, 2008)

Hardcover 456 pages



        An art book put out by the various personalities from London’s Royal College of Arts Department of Communication Art and Design (usually when they slap that many words on a title or department it’s a deflection to ward people off from questioning a department’s usefulness). It began life as an annual magazine, I believe they are up to issue six, the first three of which are collected here (hence the name).

         This isn’t for someone who is looking for a story or some guys beating up on each other. This is a collection and as such the art varies greatly from page to page. One flip you find incredible piece rendered in amazing detail, next flip you come across something that is below amateurish, next flip an item that feels like a filler sketch.

          This is essentially a cult publication, popular among the English visual arts community, but unavailable at most stores. I only managed to run across it in a second hand book shop when I was doing my yearly purge of my collection. It’s a quick read, those illustrations which grabbed my eye and caused me to pause, being few and far between. But I believe a person would get out of this book what they bring to it. And in that sense it succeeds. Looking through this, every person would be inspired by a different page and long fruitful discussions could come from the disagreements.

           For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.