Alec: How to be an ArtistBy Eddie Campbell
2001
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
From the artist of From Hell comes a book that's part autobiography part advice for how to be an artist part history of the mid-80's graphic novel boom and part mediation on the random way a life can work out. Split into fourteen chapters each wandering off in their own separate directions this is a comic that doesn't care so much about telling a story - but more what you can learn when you narrate your own life back at yourself. Exploring Campbell's humble beginnings selling cheap photocopies of his strips, to working for music magazines and going to conventions across the world with advice offered every step of the way ("You will at this stage find it necessary to defraud the government") this is an eye-opening account of the life of someone doing his best to work out what to sacrifice and what to hold on to as he reaches towards his dream of "becoming a real artist". To the heights of 'making it' or - at the very least - watching other people 'make it' and getting the inside scoop on Alan Moore buying his mother a house Campbell is always pithy, dry and mooning the bus that drives past his window. Will be best understood by those with a good working knowledge of the major players on the graphic novel circuit (who it would seem are all old friends to Campbell) and packed with insights and opinions about the whole murky business of making 'art'/'comics' (or are they the same thing? hmmm) it's a little something different but worth struggling through for those who want an insider point of view of what it was like when comics (however briefly) were the next big thing.
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Links: Mindless Ones Article, Time Review, The Shadow Gallery Review, Comics Worth Reading Review.
Further reading: From Hell, Understanding Comics, Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life
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