Every weekday this week, I'll review a book from NBM Publishing (I actually have six review copies, but Greg Burgas already reviewed one, Miss Don't Touch Me, so I figure I'll stick with the other five).

We begin with First Time, a book written by a French writer Sibylline and drawn by a variety of artists, including superstar artist Dave McKean. The book, as you can tell by the name, is about initial sexual experiences, whether they be the first time that they had sex or the first time they tried various types of sex.

It's a strong "adult anthology" with stunning artwork on practically every story!



The book opens with perhaps my favorite story of the bunch, drawn by Alfred (Alfred drew the great graphic novel Why I Killed Peter, also from NBM, which I reviewed here).

It is a pretty straightforward "first time having sex" story, only Sibylline does such a nice job creating the characters (aided, of course, in great measure by Alfred) that the story has some real oomph to it. And it has a nice sort of almost twist ending.

Capucine is the artist on the next story, about the first trip to a sex shop. Capucine does a very nice job with the sex shop itself (expressions of the shopper and the workers, in particular), but as a whole, this story tended to being a bit more on the "just what you would expect" side of the fence.

Jerome d'Aviau drew the next story, about a couple living out a fantasy for the first time. d'Aviau drew it quite well, and that's important, as this story is almost all about the artwork.

Virginie Augustin handles the art on perhaps my second favorite story, about the first time between two female friends and the hurt feelings that come from one of them obviously having views about what the night meant that the other one doesn't necessarily follow. Augustin delivers beautifully on the emotional spectrum Sibylline requires from her on the story.

Vince is the artist on the next story, about a married couple bringing in a woman to have sex with the wife. Sibylline shines here as she takes what could be a straightforward story and adds enough zigs and zags via the woman's thoughts that it really works well.

Olivier Vatine draws the following story, about a couple going to a sex club. Sibylline, again, does a great job working with a character's innermost thoughts.

Cyril Pedrosa stars in the next tale about the first time a woman has S&D sex.



As you can see, his work is as powerful as the story needs it to be, which is awesome for Sybilline, to have so many great artists drawing these stories.

Dominique Bertail draws the tale of a couple where the wife first tries sodomy (or, in this instance, I believe the term is "pegging").

Bertail gives the story a nice almost "cuteness."

Dave McKean finishes the book off with a story about pornography, and here, Sibylline basically steps back a bit and just lets McKean go nuts, as only he can - it's a twisted arrangement of panels all leading to an almost transcendent experience, which I suppose is the point, no?



Beautiful work from a comic book master artist.

So all in all, this was definitely a good adult anthology.

Recommended.