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Eddie Campbell (1955- ) was born in Scotland, but now lives in Australia, having emigrated in 1986 with his Australian-born wife, Annie. Here's Eddie in his own words... "I did an enormous amount of painting when I was 14 and 15. I wandered around painting landscapes and stuff - must have done about 200 paintings between those two summers because that's all I lived for then. Sun, rain and snow. I wanted to be an Impressionist: sit with Monet and Renoir on the banks of the Seine." "I'm not trying to make ordinary life interesting: it is interesting." "I was publishing my own little photocopied comics because in 1981 there wasn't much else to do with the kind of work I was doing, and I guess other people were in the same situation because I found myself in the middle of a noisy little small-press scene... It was all very colourful and crazy while it lasted... I know for a fact that there is a real buried treasure of innovation in the body of work that was created in the British small press between 1982 and 1986 by various and sundry artists. The mainstream has ignored it and passed it by but one day it will probably return to rape and pillage that body of work." "Straight honest statements are to be preferred over a repertoire of acquired tricks." "I don't put Alec forward as an autobiographical novel. I say, It's a novel and it deals with the stuff of real life... Alec isn't entirely me. You see, in Sherlock Holmes, in order to make Holmes look ultra clever, Watson is made to look a little bit dim - particularly in the old Hollywood movies. So in order to make Danny Gray a bigger figure in the big roughhouse world, I made Alec a little more fragile and bookish than he really is." "I believe we should always be seeking
to enrich our lives, to add a new layer to what is already
there." Interviews: Resources: Reviews:
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ESSENTIAL READING: |
"I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened to me. I feel
that if I can work it all out in the book and glean some wisdom
from it, then we'll all be better off. My insight started while
reading the sleeve notes pertaining to a modern composer - it
may have been Olivier Messaien, but I can't find it again...
perhaps Darius Milhaud - but anyway, the composer was described
as coming out of a bad funk during which he did no work and "came
to despise himself and his art." A large icicle slid through
my head as I recognized myself in the words. How did I come to
this? It isn't just because there aren't enough copies of my
books going out; I've got along fine with that one for 25-plus
years. It isn't because I'm having cash problems - some Web site
was discussing my bankruptcy - because I'm still making a living
from the books. So what is it? This new book of mine may be the
profoundest thing I've attempted. It terrifies me. I've drawn
the final chapter, so I know it's going to work, but I'm having
a frightful time joining up all the dots, making one thing relate
to the next. I am genuinely into scary new territory with this
one, without a model to fall back on... it should perhaps
be regarded as a flipside to How
To Be An Artist. Thus: how to stop being one." |
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"If you're one of the lucky ones who read this series when
it first came out you'll need no further recommendation or praise
from me: you know how good it is. If you're discovering [Bacchus]
for the first time, I envy you, you have a treat in store." |
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"Alan Moore's The Birth Caul was
a stunning piece of poetry, of autobiography, of magic, of invention." |
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"As with all of the site based works, Snakes & Ladders and
it's specific nature grew out from my reading of the site itself.
The disinterment of Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth Siddel; the
visionary nature of Arthur Machen's experiences after the death
of his first wife and their relation to the lunar and solar spheres
of the Kaballah; the musings about DNA (which is pretty much
all about death and reproduction)... all of these things seemed
to have a whiff of resurrection about them, tying them together.
Love, death, art, resurrection, dreams, visions, heartbreak,
romance... these seemed to be the predominating colours of the
landscape, that gave the place its individual soul and character." |
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| SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY: | ||
The Alec Stories: The Bacchus Stories: With Alan Moore: Other Work: Periodicals: |
