Teleny and Camille

“What Jon Macy has done with his Teleny and Camille graphic novel is impressive: adapting a work with such a weighty historical and sensual baggage is no small task, and he’s done so by creating visual narrations suited to the powerful prose, without shrinking from the less palatable aspects of the story, but also by acknowledging that this is a fiction, and more than that, a fantasy that was created in a specific culture for a specific audience.” Read François Peneaud’s review on The Gay Comics List.

“There is an agenda here, and it is not simply the visual re-telling of a well-known novel. It is a celebration of that novel and a celebration of what that novel deeply wants to assert. It is an artistic and aesthetic triumph.” Read John McCrae’s review on Oscholars.

“One thing I must thank Jon personally for is his ending. THANK YOU, JON!! Your indictment against the trend in gay literature that ‘even the ones written by the gays’ require a tragic ending because ‘it’s like we’re too damaged to even dare imagine being happy’ is difficult to refute. So many stories dwell on death for obvious reasons, but even pre-AIDS gay media fall to either Boys Beware or Cruising-type idioms. It’s refreshing to have a gay love story with a happy… well, at least an ending without murder, death, or disfigurement (I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if your ending is a happy one). E. M. Forster is no doubt completely behind your modern addition to the text.” Read Sean McGrath’s review on Prism Comics.

“…I savored and studied each page and felt the book should only be read alone and by candlelight. So vivid is the world Macy constructs, and the threat of exposure so daunting, just the experience of reading the book feels wicked and forbidden. It’s a very sensual reading experience.” Read Chance Whitmire’s review on Fanboys of the Universe.

“Different chapters follow the two lads to brothels and the salon of their adventurous gay acquaintance, Bryancourt. Dalliances are gay and straight, erotic and shocking. Macy’s drawing style handles it all and manages to be both sexy and fantastical. While the main story line is gay, to Macy’s credit, neither the drawings nor the plot shortchange the women characters. Though more roughly drawn than Beardsley, Macy’s style harkens back to the graphics of Art Nouveau, with its stark black ink pen lines, and its references to nature..” Read Cathy Camper’s review on Lambda Literary.

“Almost instantaneously, the two men form a bond between themselves that goes beyond just attraction, but more into telepathy. That is how much they are tied together. It’s a fascinating inter-relation, and Macy handles it spectacularly with his moody, evocative artwork.” Read Brian Cronin’s review on Comic Book Resources.

“Macy goes on to accompany the already highly charged texts with an imagery of brooding eroticism and, as required, uninhibited pornography, in some passages stripping everything down to purely visual terms. His inky linework stays sensuous and sensitive to the turbulent emotions and settings of his two idealised lovers, shifting between streamlined simplicity and more ornate flourishes from Expressionism to Art Nouveau.” Read Paul Gravett’s review from The Times Literary Supplement.

“The book is a beautifully illustrated story of the love of one man for another, ripe with all the barriers to such love in a strict unforgiving society. The artwork alone conveys the intensity and beauty of the men’s feelings as the clear, simple language conveys their thoughts.” Read Chuck Forester’s review on Lambda Literary.