By Jess McCabe | 26 June 2006, 22:59

With all the debate about porn going on at the moment, it seems like a good time to talk about Lost Girls, a new, erotic graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Melinda Gebbie.

The book concerns Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz), Alice (in Wonderland) and Wendy (from Peter Pan) - all grown up, the three characters meet in a hotel and embark on a sexual adventure. Part of this involves retelling their stories - the ones we are all so familiar with - as tales of sexual awakening.

Violet Blue carries a fabulous selection of preview images from the as-yet unpublished book. And it may stay unpublished in the UK because of opposition from Great Ormond Street Hospital, which holds the copyright on Peter Pan.

A few words from Moore, as quoted by Violet Blue:

It presents this material in a way which is every bit as sensual and beautiful and at times, startling, as the actual sexual act itself can be. I think that was probably why we did it.

The sexual imagination, which is the biggest part of sexuality, is not well served in our culture, and I really don’t understand why that should be. The only way that we can talk about or refer to sex — we have two choices: we can either do it in grubby works of pornography that will be read by people who are desperately ashamed of what they are reading, or we can discuss sex in the clinical manner of sex manuals or The Joy of Sex.

Neither of these things have got anything that I, or probably most other normal people actually associate with our sexuality. I doubt that many of us are clinical about our sexuality, or wish to be sleazy about our sexuality either, but these seem to be the only two options where this material can even be discussed — where the sexual imagination can even be talked about. That startling omission in culture was probably the biggest impetus behind Lost Girls — we felt that there ought to be something like that.

Having read the first couple of chapters, if you’re appetite isn’t whet yet, it should be. It’s a beautiful book: truely erotic, deliciously drawn and honestly interesting as a concept.

If you can’t wait, TopShelf carries a long and interesting interview with Moore here.