Campbell and White Discuss "The Playwright"
Eddie Campbell needs little introduction by this point. He's the artist of "From Hell," the cartoonist behind "Alec: The Years Have Pants," the recently collected volume of his Alec stories out from Top Shelf just a few months ago, and the man behind "Bacchus," which will be collected into two omnibus volumes next year. For his newest book, "The Playwright," he illustrated a story by Daren White, with whom he's collaborated on a number of other projects.
White was the editor behind "DeeVee," an Australian-based anthology comic where early chapters of "The Playwright" initially saw print. Among White's other writing credits include co-writing "Batman: Order of the Beasts," an Elseworlds tale from DC which was also illustrated by Campbell. The two spoke with CBR about their partnership over the years and "The Playwright," out now from Top Shelf.
You've worked together on a number of projects over the years, but how did the two of you initially meet?
Eddie Campbell: It was away back in 1993. Daren was in Brisbane, took a notion to meet me, ostensibly to buy some of my harder-to-find books, I think, and got my number from the local comic shop. I wasn't self-publishing at that stage, but did so shortly after that. Daren was part of a bunch of new people I found myself in contact with around that time, which led to the publishing of the "DeeVee" comic book, but I'm sure he'll fill you in on that.
Daren White: The usual way. Beer and comics.
Shortly after moving to Brisbane in the early nineties, I tried to buy a couple of Eddie's books from a local comic store. They put me in contact with him directly and we ended up meeting for an afternoon drink. We kept in touch, and within a short period of time, a regular Saturday afternoon meet up at one of the local pubs, started. That's where I met the other blokes who were involved with "Bacchus," to various degrees, and the idea for "DeeVee" germinated.
Daren, where did this character, the lead in "The Playwright," come from?
White: The initial image was of a respectable business man sitting on a bus staring at the other passengers, while his internal monologue was analyzing them in a quite explicit, probably wrong, yet hopefully funny way. I quickly realized that he was worth more than the short story I originally had in mind and so merged a few other personality traits that I'd been intending to mine for other short character pieces.
I approached the story by taking what could be everyday thoughts and feelings and exaggerating them until they border on caricature. I think the book sometime makes people uncomfortable or squirm, because, while the exact scenarios in the book are relentless and farcical, they have that grain of familiarity.
Eddie, you're incredibly busy, working on numerous projects. What is it about "The Playwright" that made you want to illustrate it, and how much say did you have in the writing and the shape of the final book?
Campbell: "The Playwright" was just one of a bunch of stories that sprung up when we were churning out the "DeeVee" bi-monthly and "Bacchus" monthly, to which Daren contributed a few stories, some illustrated by different artists and some which I illustrated myself. His first chapter of "The Playwright" was so good that I couldn't bear to see somebody else ruin it, because it had so many peculiarities about Britain and none of his other artists had lived there. So i wound up as the artist on it. Â But I never interfered with the writing except in a proofreading capacity.
"The Playwright" began in "DeeVee," an anthology which Daren edited. How much of the story was published there over the years and how is the content and format different here?
White: Yes. "DeeVee" was a quarterly anthology edited and published by myself, Michael Evans and Marcus Moore at the same time Eddie was publishing the monthly "Bacchus." We struck a cunning deal with Eddie to provide stories for "Bacchus" in exchange for publishing his "Alec" book, "How to be an Artist," in "DeeVee." "DeeVee" eventually became annual, three issues, of which, were distributed in the US. Each of these featured a Playwright scene, in black and white and in a traditional comic book format. When we came to continue and complete the bulk of the material, Eddie re-formatted the pages to larger, single tiers, and fully painted the artwork. He added considerable background detail and finessed the overall look. The hardcover edition is the definitive version. The vibrancy of the color became integral to the storytelling by contrast to what initially might appear to be rather dull and grey subject matter.