Heavy Metal's Luis Royo collections
Prohibited books 1, 2 & 3
Conceptions I
(Heavy Metal) 
Prohibited books These books are not appropriate for children or adolescents. Of the three, book 3 scored highest with more of its pieces being presented alone on a dedicated page (book 1 scored the lowest). All are smaller, 7-by-10 inches, than what is considered 'full-size' today. All have text, poetic and narrative, that usually has only a tangential connection with the art presented. The last two have a small number of double-page spreads that use different strategies to combat the book's central gutter, either laying them in the center of a portfolio or allowing the main subject occupy one page and letting the atmosphere be what the center splits. All the single works are captioned with title, creation-year and size. Nudity abounds, of both genders, but while the un-self-conscious females are pristine, nubile youths, the male side of the equation is represented, for the most part, by grotesques. No dispute, these books are *about* the adult themes that I flag on this site and goes about their presentation very graphically.
Book 1 (1999) (cover partially withheld) This first book has only 32 pages, of which 26 are dominated by the art and only 17 of those focus on a single large reproduction. In regards to adult themes, the depictions here are pretty tame compared to the explicitness that is to come in the next two volumes, but there's still just enough here to keep it away from minors. The text is mild erotic poetry with chapters, such as they are, being introduced in only German and French. The artist's son, Romulo Royo, is credited with "Design and Photographs", and his name is captioned on a number of smaller images, but rather than assume he was those pieces' artist, as many commenters have, I wonder if the pieces aren't dimensional art that Luis Royo created and the captions register that it is Romulo's photography that has captured them. This is the only one of the three books with attractive males.
Book 2 (2001) Book 2 is 48-page book with 14 of them with multiple images and 31 with a single large reproduction. The last quarter of the book is drawings of a young maiden and her demonic lover that are loosely sequential.
Book 3 (2003) Book 3 is the same size, but as mentioned above, it has a slightly better ratio of page-spanning pieces to multiple-image groupings (40 to 3). A good number of those pieces are 'related' to each other - certainly in the last section where they could be considered sequential-art, illustrating the thin erotic tale that accompanies them.
Conceptions I (2002) Not appropriate for children or adolescents. This is a smaller (7-by-10-inch) 80-page book of sketches, with only a handful or so of images on the more finished end of that spectrum. 44 pages display large reproductions and another 21 each have multiple images. The rest are interstitial or sketches so 'thin' as to not be countable. Many of the full-page works are presented as full-bleeds or against a grey background while a couple of them are nicely color-tinted. There's quite a diversity of subjects, portraying battle-scenes, warriors, demons, aliens and, yes, women. No shortage of nudity and the goings-on sometimes cross over into adults-only territory. Note that all the other Luis Royo books on The List are recommended before this one, but there seem to be no repeats from them here.
Related Books
Other Heavy Metal releases
Arantza Sestoya: Wicked Kisses
Arthur Suydam: The Art Of The Barbarian
Heavy Metal - 25 Years Of Classic Covers
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