Luis Royo

Seriously? The artist/so-called author wants you to have the book handy by your left hand, so you can masturbate with your right?

Seriously?

Gonna have to pony up some better stuff than this, then.

The art is pretty. Well-rendered humans (mostly women), mostly nude, mostly in strange situations, such as gazing reflectively at the severed head between her creamy thighs, while the headless body kneels before her.

...not exactly the type of scene I'd consider spank-worthy.

As for the actual show more writing, the less said, the better. It's just fucking awful. show less

This is typical Royo fare, which is to say, mostly fantastic. The images are accompanied by short sidestories combined with some exposition on the artistic and inspirational aspects for the subject matter shown. The pieces presented here are from an earlier part of Royo's endeavors (in relation to the other books) and so deal mostly with fantasy settings, but you see the style that comes in later works popping its head up to take a peek at the world. An eminently enjoyable romp.

Put quite simply, this is not Royo's strongest work. Some of the images are still simply amazing, but the collection, as a whole is not as consistent as others. This is likely, in no small part, due to the fact that the images are a collection of different genres all stuffed together into one volume. The cover images are not representative of what you see between them. Inside, you'll see more landscapes and the majority of figures just don't seem as vivid and affecting on a visceral level as show more seen in other collections. There is definitely quality here and it definitely is worth spending some time with these images, but there are other works out there that are stronger and more consistent. show less

I bought this for the art, but the write-up's ended up being far more educational than I expected. Alchemical, the mythos of the Catholic people linked with the stories of the archeytpes, the hewbrew numbers and meanings that parallel in their texts. I'm still probably going to keep it mostly for the pictures, and never acquire the deck (because everything outside of the Arcana and Court Cards aren't decorated) but definitely worth looking at if you ever get the chance.