Bacchus, Vol. 2: The Gods of Business

Bacchus #2

by Eddie Campbell

Joe Theseus and the multi-faceted crazy Eyeball Kid get buggered around by the Telchines.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Eddie Campbell is a British comics artist and cartoonist whose work has shaped the evolution of modern graphic storytelling. He is widely known as the illustrator and publisher of From Hell, his long collaboration with Alan Moore that reimagines the Jack the Ripper case through an ambitious and meticulously researched narrative. Campbell is also the creator of the long-running semi-autobiographical Alec series, later collected in Alec: The Years Have Pants, and the satirical adventure cycle Bacchus, which follows a handful of Greek gods who have wandered into the contemporary world. His scratchy pen-and-ink technique draws on impressionist influences and early masters of expressive line art, while his writing blends humor, candor, and literary ambition in a manner that critics have compared to Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller.
Campbell began developing autobiographical comics in the late 1970s before expanding the Alec stories throughout the following decades, publishing early instalments through small press networks in London and later with major independent publishers. After moving to Australia in the mid-1980s, he continued to produce both Alec and Bacchus stories while contributing to a range of international anthologies. His partnership with Moore on From Hell, initially serialised in the anthology Taboo, became one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of its era and further cemented his reputation for grounded, character-driven illustration.
Across a varied career Campbell has worked as a creator, editor, publisher, and occasional court illustrator. His contributions to comics have earned him numerous industry awards, including the Eisner Award, the Harvey Award, the Ignatz Award, the Eagle Award, and the UK Comic Art Award. He continues to produce new work while maintaining a strong presence in both literary and comics circles.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is great cartooning by Campbell and collaborator Ed Hillyer, and the series Bacchus (or Deadface, The Eyeball Kid, etc.) is sort of ahead of the curve with Greek pantheon in modern crime stories.
Recommended.

[Andy Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Campbell & Hillyer's incredible and eminently readable saga gets a 5 because despite critical acclaim it hasn't been read by everyone who loves comics, and it should be. This is classical mythology mixed with gangster noir, the brutality of the ages presented with acute detail, story-weaver's relish, visual mixes and layers that are both mastery of something zine-like and an epic of re-definition. It's as if the graphic novel pages are on loan from one of the world's finest museums of art, recovered from the dawn of time. You should do.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the mix of Greek mythology and gangsters. Bacchus is barely even in this volume and it doesn't even matter. Joe Theseus and the Eyeball Kid versus the Telchines is where it's at. Just terrific stuff.

[Mackenzie Melo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fortunes and misfortunes of the Greek Gods - well, at least some of them - amongst us, poor humans. Hmmmm, poor Theseus as well.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the first in the series, but damn good nonetheless.
-m