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As an artist Eddie Campbell can be kind of an acquired taste. His line is a little too sketchy for some folks, and especially in his autobiographical works his drawings have an incomplete feeling that can look amateurish at first. Upon further attention though the sketchy just barely complete style seems to be the graphic language of memory, kind of the equivalent of a sepia toned photograph. The sophistication of the storytelling and graphic design kind of sneak up on you here, and in quite a good way.

It helps if you know a little bit about the state of the comic book industry in England in the late seventies, but even if you don’t the book gives you more than enough information to participate in the narrative. Alec How to be an Artist is the story of Eddie Campbell’s career, but the narrative is in the second person and really it is a highly informative book for aspiring creative types of many kinds. His formative experiences are those of a budding cartoonist, but in many respects they aren’t that different from those of a musician or actor.

Eddie Campbell is best known for his collaboration with Alan Moore on From Hell a graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper murders, but I’ve always preferred his autobiographical works. His reputation is that he is a kind of prickly intellectual type, but what comes through in books like this is a kind of exasperated generosity and a point of view that is more stoic than anything else. It’s hard to imagine stoicism in the face of disappointed ambitions, but somehow he manages it, and also a kind of a sense of joy when it’s all said and done. All in all one of my favorite books of its type.

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