Fantastic voyage

With its amusing evisceration of the pomposity that afflicts art criticism, Marc-Antoine Mathieu's compellingly Kafkaesque The Museum Vaults provides the second of four graphic novels commissioned by France's premier museum The Louvre (who clearly do possess a sense of humour). It follows the odyssey of art appraiser Monsieur Volumer as he plumbs the depths of a seemingly-limitless museum. Generating a dizzying sense of space and perspective, Mathieu displays a towering talent for capturing the grandness of architecture as well as its forbidding qualities. As Volumer makes his way down gorgeous winding staircases into titanic storage rooms, you can't help but want to follow - no matter where they lead.

Danny Graydon