Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc From: [m t revor] at [nyx.cs.du.edu] (Matthew Trevor) Subject: INTERVIEW: Eddie Campbell Date: Fri, 7 Aug 92 03:18:05 GMT The following is an article taken from the July issue of _Utopia_, a student magazine produced by the Queensland University of Technology, detailing an interview with comic author/artist Eddie Campbell. DISCLAIMER: Before beginning, I'd like to mention that I've tried to capture as many spelling mistakes as possible which featured in the original article (esp. mispelling of names like "Millar", and multiple variations in spelling of the same word, like "Bachuass"). I apologise if I've missed any (never having read any of Campbell's work, I'm unable to ascertain whether character names are correct in all cases) and I take no blame for the poor grammer inherent in portions of the interview. But hey, I'm not the editor, okay? :) === COMIC LEGEND SPINS MYTHS ------------------------ Eddie Campbell first began writing and drawing comics in Glasgow during the early 1980's, off the kitchen table, running off the copies on a photocopier. Now he lives in Brisbane and still writes and draws his own comic, but on a somewhat larger scale. His creation, _Deadface_ is one of the top 5 black and white comics on the market in terms of sales, and when he does put out new work, it sells out very quickly indeed. He also has some very poignant observations to make about the comics industry, as you'll see in an interview that Utopia managed to set up with Eddie. U: When did you start drawing and writing comics? EC: I used to do a little strip for NME in 1986, and I've been self-publishing since the early 80's. It was about this time that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out and revolutionised the black and white comics industry. That was when things really began to change. Then Alan Moore and Frank Miller were putting out some very different work (_V for Vendetta_, _Ronin_, _Watchmen_, and _Dark Knight Returns_) and although it all appeared at roughly the same time, you really couldn't consider it to be a movement. In fact, it was something of a fluke. We are still not quite sure of how to do things in the comic industry, even now. U: How do you mean? EC: Well, most people who run comics publishing companies are comics fans, not necessarily business people. It still has an amatuer feel and attitude especially in terms of publicity for comics and distribution. A recent experience I had with Dark Horse (a comics printing company who I do work for), really did a bad job of publicising _Deadface_. They described it as 'wry humour', which was only a small aspect of the story. I did write some copy for an advert, but they didn't use it. Actually, they did such a botch of it that I probably will never publish anymore stories under the title of _Deadface_. I'll probably just use _Bachuass_ from now on. The "Bachuass" that Eddie speaks of is the same Bachuass of Ancient Greece, the God of Wine and Frivolity. However he is now living in the late 20th century, and has discovered that gods just aren't immortal anymore. They never were, and whoever said they were going to live forever was playing a jolly joke on them. So Bachauss just travels, drinks, and retells the legends of Ancient Greece in a very personal, somewhat more interesting manner. After all, Bachuass was there when it happened and he knew the gods he is telling us about. It makes for a very entertaining and tongue-in-cheek look at the gods. I asked Edde just how personal his creations and ideas were to him. EC: Very personal. If I'm writing a story with somebody that involves one of my characters, it is usually done on the kitchen table, and doesn't leave my house. Eddie then showed me art from the same script, one by him, and the other by a Brisbane cartoonist. The differences were quite stark. EC: Unfortunately, this fellow hasn't quite captured the spirit and nobility of the Minator. That isn't saying that he isn't a good artist, but he just didn't get it quite the way I would've liked it. So yeah, I feel very protective of my ideas, because I don't know how many more good ones I'll have. U: What are you working on now? EC: In August I have a four-part miniseries coming out that basically brings together most of the characters I've developed out of Ancient Greece. In past story lines, they have been racing around the world, either hunting or avoiding each other. Now they are going to meet. It is the penultimate story for these characters and I'm pretty happy with the way it has turned out. U: Did you choose to use Greek Mythology for a reason? EC: No. It could have been based on the Wild West. This particular Mythology works because I use it to highlight the fragility of life as seen through the eyes of somebody who thought he was immortal and now has to deal with the fact that he is actually mortal. Eddie feels that comics are still actually maturing, both in terms of distribution and finished product. Comics is yet to produce it's Great Statement that will make the rest of the literary world sit up and take notice of this genre, in much the same way that American Literature floundered during the 1900's to 1920's, waiting for someone to write the Great American Novel. This did of course finally happen and American Literature was taken seriously by the rest of the world. However whether this will happen to the comics industry is debatable. EC: I think that we have already passed the stage where we could have produced the Great Comic. A few years ago we were at the stage where we may have been able to do it, but not anymore. The market has gotten too conservative, with all of it's X-Men products. Not that the X-Men in themselves are an intrinsically bad thing. It is just that when you walk into a comic shop and that is all you see, then that makes me think that things are getting a bit conservative and that all the risk taking that used to happen and that would make producing comics fun is gone. I think that the edge has gone off the industry. (Article by Paul Green) === Mentioned in the article (but excluded here) is the presence of a review of EC's new mini-series in the same issue of _Utopia_. This seems to be absent, however, but I'll be sure to post it if it appears in the next issue. Matthew T.