The Fate of the Artist

Book excerpt: In his latest graphic novel, Eddie Campbell conducts an investigation into his own sudden disappearance.In wildly comical reenactments of incidents from his curious life, his part is played by an actor. With audacious literary sleight of hand, heputs words into the mouths of those who knew him. Clues aresought in artistic blow-outs from the history of all the arts. And all the major players, even down to Monty the dog,get their own daily strip and Sunday page in yellowed newspaper sections from an imaginary long ago.In this creative mining of the rich resources of the comic strip language, Campbell gives us a complex meditation on the lonely demands of art amid the realities of everyday life.