Bacchus, Volume 1

Bacchus: Omnibus Edition #1

by Eddie Campbell

Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus is a true epic, spanning a decade of work, over a thousand pages, and several millennia of alcohol consumption.

In Bacchus, the visionary behind From Hell (with Alan Moore) and Alec: The Years Have Pants presents his version of “an American-style comic book,” filtered through his own brilliant, whimsical, and wide-ranging sensibility. With a fine blend of action, comedy, suspense, and an ear for a great story, Bacchus brings the gods and myths of ancient Greece to modern life, as if they had never left.

Nearly 600 pages, this deluxe volume collects the first half of the Bacchus saga (including Immortality Isn't Forever, The Gods of Business, Doing the Islands with Bacchus, The Eyeball Kid: One Man Show, and Earth, Water, Air & Fire) with new notes and commentary by the author.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Religion

560 pages, Paperback

First published July 23, 2015

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

[Ganzeer Ganzeer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Eddie Campbell, but BACCHUS (Volume One) has been a horrible chore to get through. I'm on Page 156 of this 557 beast and I am in no way compelled to get through the rest. There are some interesting bits scattered throughout the narrative, but they are far and few between to warrant the agonizingly boring chunks that make up the majority of the book. There is surely an inkling of brilliance deep down within the story's core, which follows 4000 year-old Bacchus, the Greek god of wine and revelry, who is waltzing around America now, not doing a whole lot other than getting shit-faced while spinning old yarns from the good old days of Ancient Greece. You'd think things would get interesting once it is revealed that Joe (Theseus) is also still around and running a corporation of some sort. You'd think things would get particularly interesting once it is revealed that Bacchus is holding a grudge against Theseus for olden unfinished business. You'd think things would get compoundly interesting once it is revealed that The Eyeball Kid, grandson of Argus (of the hundred eyes) and slayer of Zeus himself has it in for Theseus. Or rather, wants to get at Theseus' secret for eternal youth. The basis for a brilliant story is certainly there, but it feels like Campbell spends the majority of the book dancing around this possible brilliant story, trying to get at its most interesting bits, but completely failing to do so.

As a rule, I will give any book 100 pages to engage me. Asking a reader to continue to stick with a book after 100 pages of sheer boredom is simply asking too much. And for someone such as myself –who is in fact a huge fan of Eddie Campbell, and has a deep love for ancient mythology, and has a great interest in modern gangster stories and crime fiction– to be completely bored by this book is nothing but sad.

The thing one gets the most out of reading BACCHUS is a feeling of lost potential. Something I suspect might've inspired Neil Gaiman to write AMERICAN GODS, another story wherein the gods of the Ancient world are roaming America. But in Gaiman's version, they are pit against the Gods of the new world, the Gods of the railroad, the shopping mall, and television. Reading BACCHUS, one can't help but see a wealth of mind-blowing material that could be derived from that one singular idea, of what if the gods of old still roamed the Earth. Sadly, the only mind-blowing thing about BACCHUS is how a work so large and vast, one rooted in a mythology so rich, told by a master like Campbell no less, could fail to deliver so miserably.

[Matt Quann · Rating 2 out of 5]

When a graphic novel takes me a full year to get through, it says something about my interest level. I was really hoping for something akin to Gaiman's Sandman and was excited about something else from Eddie Campbell after really enjoying From Hell, his collaboration with Alan Moore. Instead, this book is really tonally inconsistent and never interested me in a way that made me feel compelled to return.

There's lots of positive things to be said about Campbell's unique, uneven, almost sketch-like line-work. Unfortunately, it is the only thing that remains interesting throughout the book. This was a take on Greek mythology that bored me to tears with some clunky dialogue about historical facts and a book that could never decide whether it was trying to be funny or serious.

I know a lot of people really love Campbell and this series in particular, but it did nothing for me. I'll be taking a hard pass on volume 2 with the God of Wine.

[Mark]

[A version of this review appears, in German, in the Swiss comics journal STRAPAZIN]

Not all the Olympian gods perished with the collapse of ancient Greek civilization, it turns out. A few still roam the earth today: Hermes keeps up some old duties, including returning stragglers back to Hades; Theseus (“Joe” to his friends) has a lucrative career in business (not always on the up-and-up, it must be said); and Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, is still a rascal, but he’s also become a philosopher in his later years. Settle down with a glass and listen to some of his stories: “Immortality,” he’ll tell you with a bright and piercing gaze, “well, immortality isn’t forever.”

I make no secret of the fact that I think Eddie Campbell is one of the most talented cartoonists of our time, and indeed of all time. His work is literary, emotional, rich, wise, and at times hilarious. He’s a gifted storyteller, a comedian and a tragedian both, and he taps into an apparently limitless storehouse of facts and trivia to make wonderful and illuminating connections. Campbell is a fantastic prose stylist and could have been a great essayist or memoirist; the fact that he was also born with the gift of marking up white paper with gorgeous, energetic line drawings seems to have drawn him to comics, a medium he has made his own.

Even as his career progresses, Campbell’s rank in the history of comics is secure thanks to three undeniable masterpieces, each produced over a span of decades: FROM HELL, the harrowing story of Jack the Ripper he created with Alan Moore; a peripatetic life’s worth of funny and affecting semi-autobiographical snippets collected a while back as ALEC: THE YEARS HAVE PANTS ; and the “Deadface” or ”Bacchus” stories, a loose saga published over fifteen years by five or six different publishers in several different countries. These Bacchus stories are likely the least known and most underappreciated of Campbell’s work, but the first half of them have just been collected in THE BACCHUS OMNIBUS EDITION VOLUME ONE and they will, one hopes, now get the audience they deserve.

An attempt to describe the Bacchus stories may put off the general reader. You could say they read a bit like Ovid’s METAMORPHOSES meets Tarantino’s PULP FICTION as imagined by Jack Kirby, but that would only be a start. While the thousand or so pages of the BACCHUS narrative come together around a satisfying trajectory, its true form is picaresque, with snippets of myths, tall tales, and unforgettable anecdotes. Bacchus himself is a picaresque hero, grinning his way through adventures with a rogue’s gallery of characters including The Eyeball Kid (grandson of many-eyed Argus), the Telchine brothers (“the gods of business”), and The Stygian Leech (a.k.a. the most powerful creature in the universe). And yes BACCHUS is, somehow, a superhero comic—but at the same time it’s not, and it’s also so much more: history, hardboiled crime, travelogue, memoir, even notes from a sommelier. If BACCHUS is a superhero comic, it’s one that completely overwhelms its form, at the same time both parodying the genre and elevating it to new heights. Or, as Campbell himself says in the book’s Introduction, “I wanted to mock the improbability of a big sprawling adventure while still having one.”

Neal Gaiman gets the plaudits for bringing mythology to the comics. SANDMAN is a tour-de-force, but BACCHUS is every bit as good, perhaps because it explores timeless human emotions (greed, regret, desire, nostalgia, hope, and fear) not through fantasy, but rather by constantly reminding us that the gods are just humans writ large, and their personalities and stories are immortal even if they themselves were not. Pour yourself a glass of good wine (the Table of Contents helpfully offers pairings for each chapter!) and enjoy this marvel of a book with the knowledge that Volume Two will be out well before next year’s grape harvest.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

God bless Eddie Campbell! I was vaguely aware that he'd been doing Bacchus for a long time now, but had generally lost track of it, what with all the various publishers and everything. For those few not in the know, this is THAT Bacchus, Greek god of wine and all. Campbell's Bacchus is aged, complex, mellow, best savored as opposed to swigged down. There's not a lot of action, really. Much of the book takes the form of Bacchus telling various Greek myths, putting his own spin on them. And even when the action isn't filtered through a flashback, there's a curious remove to it. You don't feel as though you're in the scene so much as reading about it, perhaps from a Penguin paperback while on vacation somewhere pleasant, watching the setting sun with a glass of wine at hand. If that makes any sense. It's not a bad thing, really, and is part of this book's charm. This book is not all fun and games. Parts of it--Simpson's tale of the Underworld, or what happens when Bacchus makes wine--get very dark indeed. As I said, this is not a book to be rushed, but savored. Marvel at the loving detail of Bacchus' craggy visage. Smile at the Eyeball Kid's malapropisms. This book is every bit as wonderful and idiosyncratic as Eddie Campbell has ever produced. Looking forward to volume 2!

[Akira Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minus one star for naked people riding dolphins. There's no excuse for that.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

My appreciation for Eddie Campbell continues to grow. There was a time when his art seemed to me to be too scratchy, his figures too minimally sketched. Here, however, I am struck by his strong use of black, his clever mixing of styles (including folding in, with greater or lesser degrees of modification) photographs, and his varied and dynamic layouts. Campbell's Bacchus tales are a loosely-sequenced set of interconnected narratives. This volume brings together what were originally published as several different shorter series. Inevitably, this leads to a lot of repetition of information (the ejection of Hephaestus from Olympus, especially, strikes me as often repeated--perhaps because the image of Zeus swinging him by his legs to fling him is repeated each time, and is a striking and funny image) which, were this to be produced in today's climate, would probably be unnecessary. The mid-book of Bacchus doing the islands also does not gel narratively with the rest particularly well, though these short stories have their own inherent interest. Anyway, like Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and others, Campbell here sets out to mine mythology for his narrative, creating his own revisionist version of classical Greek mythology as backdrop for his focus on the now aging Bacchus (one of the few surviving Gods of Olympus), Joe Theseus (who is indeed THAT Theseus) and the Eyeball Kid, descended from Argus. To me, one of the most amusing things about the Bacchus story is that nobody seems even to look twice at the Kid, despite his grossly elongated head and ten sets of eyes (well, nine and a half--one of the fascinating but so far unexplored links between Bacchus and the Kid is that each is missing an eye). I am reminded, by contrast, of the inevitable shock and ejaculation of the sentence, "You're a duck!" every time a human encountered Gerber's Howard the Duck for the first time; one would imagine that a nineteen-eyed guy would elicit at least a second glance, if not outright shock and horror. Regardless, Campbell provides a complex and multifaceted narrative for this characters, playing on mythology, superhero tropes, horror, crime fiction, and even the travelogue (in the "doing the Islands with Bacchus" sequence). It is all given an added layer of metafiction via, especially, Bacchus's propensity for tale-telling but also more generally in how mythology is self-consciously transformed by Campbell to suit his own sometimes grim and sometimes whimsical ends.

I should mention that some of the art is not actually by Campbell, and some of the scripts are cowritten, acknowledged within the text but not on the cover or title page. Ed Hillyer, especially, deserves credit as a significant collaborator on this project.

Overall, these stories are impressive and complex. Campbell perhaps does not receive enough credit for his own skills as a cartoonist, as measured against some of the other names who emerged at around the same time he did.

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these Bacchus stories, although this volume took me a while to get through. We discussed this book, along with a number of others, in our recent Top Shelf spotlight: http://comicsalternative.com/episode-.... I just wasn't able to finish this one in time for the recording a couple of weeks ago. My favorites are the island stories, and these come in the middle and toward the end of the volume. And, hands down, one of the best characters is the Eyeball Kid...although at times, his tales become a little bogged down with broader strokes. Looking forward to the second volume of Bacchus stories, which should be coming out next year.

[Alan Vreeland · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an omnibus consisting of a compilation of comics made throughout the years. It follows Bacchus, the Greek god of wine and parties who is one of the surviving gods in a more modern setting. The story primarily focuses on, Bacchus, and Theseus alongside Hermes, and The Eyeball Kid.

The character of Bacchus is a 4000-year-old god that has survived until the modern day. He typically goes to bars, drinks, and retells stories of ancient myth through his eyes. He is amongst one of the last remaining Olympian gods alive in the modern world and Bacchus is aware of that. Of the 4000 years, he has been roaming the earth and now appears as a tired, old, man. He would reveal himself as Bacchus pretty openly, but in one instance when asked why he appears to be this elder man, he states “Immortality isn’t forever”. Typically, Bacchus would appear in Greek myth as being an idealized figure, much like many of the gods and heroes of his era. Having Bacchus as a more weary, wiser man past his prime brings him down from that idealized pedestal of godhood into something more down to earth. Much of the scenes involving Bacchus are him retelling the stories of the past, sometimes embellishing some of these stories. On the polar opposite end is Theseus. Unlike Bacchus’s story, Theseus takes a bit more of an action centered plot. While Bacchus recounts the old Greek myths, Theseus, (along with the eyeball kid most notably), at the same time goes through an adventure of his own. Although Bacchus’s sections are a majority of the time engaged in a conversation and recounting of the stories of the past, his sections do have their purpose. The book looks critically at the heroes journey and the idealism that older stories like myth brought, and pokes fun at it, all the while telling a story like it at the same time. Since it’s especially in the modern era, these idealizations of such archetypes have more or less eroded away, similar to how Bacchus went from being a more idealized figure to be a weary old man.

The stories Bacchus tells themselves are also embellished, as he states pretty early on in a conversation that “There’s always truth in the genuine myth. But like I was saying earlier, a lot of other crap gets thrown in along the way”. It looks at the hero’s journey story more critically in the way that the stories throughout time get altered, and the original stories that had such heroic journeys get muddied by embellishments.

In conclusion, the book, I find is worthy of something to check out. It follows two stories simultaneously that both pokes fun at the hero’s journey as well as tell one at the same time. I think Eddie Campbell did a pretty good job doing that in his story. However, telling two narratives at the same time can get a bit confusing because it tends to jump back and forth between Bacchus telling his stories and drinking, to Theseus, the eyeball kid, and Hermes.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow: I had read less than half of this in original publications. Together, this is a knockout.
Top Shelf puts together an omnibus of stories earlier collected by Dark Horse and Campbell's own imprint. Here, he supplies introductory essays as well.
Better than I remembered, Campbell, sometimes with collaborators like Ed Hillyer, retells some myths and brings more into the present.
I like Eyeball kid more than I remembered, and I really like Bacchus and his cohort.
Top Shelf, formerly and still somewhat of Marietta, Georgia, is in recent years absorbed into IDW publishing of California. I hope that means Campbell's works like this and Alec Eddie Campbell's Omnibox: The Complete Alec and Bacchus will remain in print for a long time to come.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to Georgia State University Clarkston Library for the loan.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great. I have some of the single issues from back in the 90's but Bacchus didn't always have its own comic. It would come out in various anthologies and from multiple publishers over the years so getting the first 5 trades in one phone book (phone books were these things that listed everyone's phone numbers back before the internet existed) sized omnibus was perfect.

The volumes alternate between Bacchus giving his version of Greek mythology or something like the history of wine and Joe Theseus and the Eyeball Kid having some kind of shady scheme going. Joe Theseus is the Theseus of Greek myth while the Eyeball Kid was one of the giants with multiple eyes who steals Zeus's lightning bolt. If you enjoy independent comics, do yourself a favor and check this out. I don't think you'll regret it.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An artist's artist getting to do something totally to his own devices without being moored by a more recognized writer (Get the Pun there?).

This comic is Campbell TRYING to be accessible (but taking his stab at an American superhero-esque tale) but fails pretty hard. That does not mean this attempt is uninteresting, and getting through it is an Odyessey in and of itself.

This is the kind of book that existed at a time that something so idiosyncratic could exists for many issues and be economically feasible (unfortunately, those days no longer exist). It's an more artistic extension (along with Puma Blues) of the 80s black and white scene that exploded after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It's a bit chuffed with itself, but nowhere near as chuffed as ALEC.

[Niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eddie Campbellin Bacchus seuraa viinin jumalan edesottamuksia nykyajassa. Sarjakuva alkaa sen jälkeen loputtomasti kopioituun tapaan asetelmalla jossa Bacchus taistelee supersankarisarjakuvien muotin mukaisesti rikollisia vastaan, mutta löytää kolmannen albumin Doing the Islands with Bacchus kohdalla kiinnostavan oman äänen kun Bacchus kertailee erilaisia antiikin myyttejä matkaillessaan Kreikan saaristossa. Bacchuksesta tuli moneen kertaan mieleen Neil Gaimanin Sandman, joka on selkeästi inspiroitunut Campbellin tarinoista. En oikein lämmennyt supersankarijutuille tai Zeuksen tappajan Eyball Kidin seikkailuille, mutta pidin paljon mytologiaa kertaavista tarinoista, jotka olivat parhaimmillaan kun niitä maisteli rauhassa kuin hyvää viiniä.

[Les75 · Rating 5 out of 5]

È un lungo viaggio attraverso bettole, carceri, isole indipendenti; in compagnia di donnacce, criminali, mafiosi, gente da bar, dèi decaduti.
Bacchus è l'antico dio invecchiato, dal volto raggrinzito e orbo di un occhio, indolente, disinteressato a tutto tranne che alle bisbocce e all'alcol.
Il Bacco di Campbel è una specie di Chinaski, ma con i poteri di un dio. E oltre a lui ci sono dèi di antica fama e nuove divinità. 
Questa edizione prestigiosa raccoglie tutti gli albi di Bacchus, dalle origini fino all'ultima vignetta. Un caleidoscopio di emozioni che ti accompagnano per lungo tempo

[Zedsdead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bits and pieces of the Greek pantheon are still alive and tooling about the Earth. 4000 year old Bacchus reminisces to assorted acquaintances about the lives and loves of his fellow gods and heroes.

A collection of vignettes. The god of wine holds forth on Theseus, Hermes, Sisyphus, Atlantis, the creation of the world, and Bacchus himself, among others.

It initially appealed to me but gradually became a drag and I struggled to progress in this 550 page cinder block. Finally gave up as my ILL time ran out. But props to Campbell for the unique approach to Greek mythology.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff! The art has a trippy, "Fear & Loathing" vibe to it. And the story is so well crafted it never gets musty & predictable like many stories of the old gods. This does a good job of walking a fine line between comedy and tragedy so it doesn't feel campy or slap-stick but also doesn't get navel-gazey & maudlin. Will definitely be keeping a lookout for the second volume.

[spoon]

DNF (gave up on it) 9/23/24 -- tried to read this. got so bored. tried to push through it, left it alone for a while and did not want to come back to it. returning to the library today. the eyeball kid kinda has a cool character design? generally not memorable.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual kind of thing, but compelling -- kept me reading for 500+ pages. Surprisingly erudite but never precious.

[Neil Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not overly enthused with the Eyeball Kid material thus far, but it's gorgeous stuff (in particular, Doing The Islands With Bacchus)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, but best in small doses.

[Yvette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eddie Campbell 的作品，你可以称赞是每部长篇都是史诗级的考据狂人加文学范极强的散文叙述，你也可以被他到处掉书袋，和冗长拖沓散漫的剧情搞得昏昏入睡。总之，每次能坚持看完，我都觉得很了不起。

[Ollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most of you, I only knew Eddie Campbell from his excellent work in Alan Moore's From Hell: one of the most deep comics ever written. But, not surprisingly of course, the man is at the helm of other remarkable works. Not least of which is Bacchus.

I had never heard of Bacchus, so I'm not here to be Mr I-told-you-so, but what I will say is that I was very impressed by the idea and execution of Bacchus Volume One. Fan of comics will certainly appreciate it for its weirdness, and fans of Eddie Campbell will absolutely devour it. The storyline is deceptively simple: Bacchus is the god of wine, and recently his life has taken an interesting turn as he finds himself on the run and in search of the Son of Poseidon and the Eyeball Kid, whose presence is driving our mad world a little madder. But really, this storyline is just a loose attempt to tell stories of Greek mythology, its colorful characters and all the crazy ass shit they get involved in, including adultery, betrayal, quests for power, and even bestiality. Campbell is not trying to outrage anyone: a quick visit to Wikipedia and you'll realize he's just sticking to the outrageous stories of Greek mythology. These stories are ahead of their time in shock-value and serve to establish the Greeks as the original masters of drama. Of course, this is all brought to life by Campbell's (and others) crude and majestic artwork: heavily contrasted and charmingly moody. Truly a sight to behold.

So strap yourself in if you're going to read Bacchus Volume One, because it's massive and fun. It'll take quite chunk of your time to finish it. And now that I have, I can't wait to do it all again for volume 2!

[Ptokremin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not going to be much of a critique, since this book really struck a cord inside me.

The action sequences on the first chapters were a bit over the top for me, but were soon forgotten because of what followed.
I liked it how he turned the Theseus character from a straight antagonist into someone I could relate to later on. Some charactes and scenes have been burned into my brain: the eyeball kid and Simpson alone are worth the read...

There's enough humor and ancient stories interwoven to get me hooked to it.

[Johanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

a hoot. uneven, messy, sometimes very awkward and almost as much fun as actually bumming around the greek islands with the god of wine. the best parts are the tours with bacchus, tying together current geography with his ever-changing stories. the manic eyeball kid sequences wore me out until i just started skipping them.
bonus: greek myths make way way more sense as stories told by an old man in bars.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interwoven mythologies and fiction; ancient gods and demigods running around the modern world. Some things never change for Greek Gods, but Bacchus does take liberties with the characters and their pasts to tell interesting stories about immortal gods living to this day. If you are a fan of Greek Mythos this is an especially interesting take.

[Kyle Burley · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Finally somebody is reprinting Eddie Campbell's marvelous "Bacchus" stories. These adventures of the bunt-out 4000 year old god of wine and revelry are funny, poignant, sardonic and, ironically enough, overflowing with humanity.
Bring on volume 2!

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eerste deel van een verzameling van Campbell's legendarische Bacchus-reeks (deel 2 verschijnt juli 2016). Bijzonder origineel, amusant én leerrijk: Campbell heeft zich oudergewoonte goed gedocumenteerd en hoe hij speelt met de mythes uit de oudheid is geweldig. Topklasse.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very reminiscent in world-weary tone and general bloody casual violence to "The Watchmen". The story is in the modern day, where the leftovers from the Greek Gods continue to battle it out over the remaining power, killing mortals in the crossfire (just like in Greek myths)

[Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eddie Campbell's sketchy drawing style is definitely an acquired taste, and this first volume of Bacchus stories is a little rough around the edges. But once you get into it, you can really see the level of artistic skill and vision on display here.

[John Pistelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review of this book will be forthcoming in Rain Taxi.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Vino this book rocks!