Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Alex, Bacchus, dirtbag, eddie campbell, from hell, kickstarter
The Arts Of Eddie Campbell, Comicker, Collected On Kickstarter
From From Hell to Bacchus to Alec, The Arts Of Eddie Campbell, Comicker, collected on Kickstarter
When I was a comic book self-publisher back in the mid-nineties, I had the bright idea of taking an art board to a comic convention, getting artists to draw on it, then publishing it as the cover of my comic books, and maybe getting some sales off the back of it. At a Glasgow convention, Eddie Campbell liked the idea so much that he put himself in charge of getting as many artists as possible to participate. And that’s why the cover to Dirtbag #2 from 1994 looks like this:
With Glyn Dillon, Mark Buckingham, Jeff Smith, Paul Grist, Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Gary Erskine, and more. So consider this a slight payback. Eddie Campbell has spent five decades shaping modern comics with his distinctive scratchy line, wry autobiographical storytelling, and landmark collaborations. Now, the first dedicated art book collecting his work has arrived on Kickstarter. The Arts of Eddie Campbell, Comicker, published by Nick Neocleous of Moonage Books, is already well past its modest goal. As of the latest figures, the campaign has raised $9,141 against a $662 goal from 145 backers and runs until the 20th of October.
The Arts of Eddie Campbell, Comicker
The Arts of Eddie Campbell, Comicker
Eddie Campbell, best known for the semi-autobiographical Alec stories, and later works such as The Fate of the Artist and The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell, the long-running Bacchus series about the Greek god of wine navigating the modern world, and his collaboration with Alan Moore on the monumental From Hell, has won nearly every major award the industry offers. The new volume is presented as Eddie Campbell guiding readers through his life in comics in his own words. It includes roughly 10,000 “fresh words of witty blather and keen insight into the making of comics from one who has made ’em for 50 years.” Among the visual highlights are full-page unpublished redraws of scenes from From Hell, a brand-new unpublished autobiographical story, rare pencil sketches, comics pages newly edited and coloured for this edition (including a complete Bacchus story), excerpts from painted comics shot from the original art, and painted covers shown without titles or lettering.A hardback edition adds 16 extra pages featuring additional strips, paintings, and From Hell character studies.
Neocleous, the campaign creator, previously produced Secrets of the Unknown, a book on British reprint publisher Alan Class that also found success via crowdfunding. His Moonage Books imprint continues that focus on comics history and archival material. This art book gathers new and rarely seen material in one place for the first time. For longtime readers of Alec and Bacchus, or anyone who values the quieter, more introspective corners of the medium alongside its grand statements, it looks like an essential addition. Maybe he should get some other folks to contribute to the cover, though. Seriously, it’s a good trick.
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