Editing Eddie Campbell (section)

===''Alec'' and other autobiographical work===
[[File:Alec - the King Canute Crowd (front cover).jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Alec: The King Canute Crowd'' by Eddie Campbell]]
Campbell made his earliest attempts at [[autobiographical comics]] in the late 1970s with ''In the Days of the Ace Rock 'n' Roll Club''<ref>Campbell, Eddie. [http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.com/2011/12/nd-here-it-is-this-exists-only-as-app.html "And here it is! This exists only as an app!"], personal blog (11 December 2011): "In the Days of the Ace Rock'n'Roll Club was a book, or an ongoing series of 7-page stories which I drew between March 1978 and March 1979."</ref> (1978–1979). This evolved into ''Alec'', with the character of Alec MacGarry standing in for the author. Campbell self-published these early comics in the [[amateur press association]] ''[[British Amateur Press Association (comics fandom)|BAPA]]'' and then as short-run photocopied pamphlets in London in the early 1980s, selling them at conventions and comic marts and via [[Paul Gravett]]'s "''Fast Fiction''" market stall. When Gravett founded ''[[Escape Magazine]]'', Campbell was one of the artists featured.

In 1984 Escape published ''Alec'', a slim collection of his semi-autobiographical stories. This was followed by two further collections, ''Love and Beerglasses'' (1985) and ''Doggie in the Window'' (1986).

While in [[Australia]] (where he moved in 1986), Campbell published a number of comics with the new British publisher [[Harrier Comics]]. These included the [[One-shot (comics)|one-shots]] ''By The Time I Get To Wagga Wagga'' (1987), and ''Ace'' (1988), as well as his first ''[[Bacchus (comics)|Bacchus]]'' comics (see below). With [[Glenn Dakin]] and [[Phil Elliott]], he helped found Harrier's alternative-flavored New Wave imprint.<ref name=Yang />

In 1990 all three ''Alec'' volumes were collected, together with some unpublished material, as ''The Complete Alec'' by [[Acme Press]]/[[Eclipse Comics]].<ref name=Yang>Yang, Sam. "A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Wine and Eddie Campbell," ''The Comics Journal'' #145 (Oct. 1991), p. 59, 78.</ref> The collection won the 1991 [[UK Comic Art Award]] for Best Graphic Novel Collection.<ref name=TCJ142>"British Awards Announced," ''The Comics Journal'' #142 (June 1991), p. 17.</ref> In 2000 this material was republished as ''The King Canute Crowd''.

Two further slim volumes, ''The Dead Muse'' (1990) and ''Little Italy'' (1991) appeared through [[Fantagraphics]] Books.

''Graffiti Kitchen'', which Campbell considers the highpoint of the series,{{citation needed|date=October 2018}} was published by [[Tundra Press|Tundra]] in 1993, and ''[[The Dance of Lifey Death]]'' followed in 1994 from [[Dark Horse Comics]].

Campbell then followed up these works by self-publishing two larger works.  ''Alec: How To Be An Artist'' (2000), a study of the art form and of Campbell's own artistic journey, and ''After The Snooter'' (2002), in which Campbell appears to have laid Alec McGarry to rest. Both works were originally serialised within his ''[[Bacchus (comics)|Bacchus]]'' series, but were reworked upon collection. ''The Fate of the Artist'', in which Campbell's family and friends investigate his disappearance, undermining the image of himself he had presented in his previous autobiographical works, was published by [[First Second Books]] in 2006. ''Alec: How to Be an Artist'' was nominated for the [[Harvey Award]] for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2000.

In 2007 Campbell spent some time serving as a [[Courtroom sketch|court illustrator]] in Australia.<ref>Campbell, Eddie. [http://eddiecampbell.blogspot.com/2007_04_08_archive.html "Bastards I have drawn: (The Villains in my Home Town- part 4),"] personal blog (14 Apr. 2007).</ref>

All the ''Alec'' stories, with the exception of ''The Fate of the Artist'', were published in one volume, ''Alec: The Years Have Pants'' by Top Shelf Productions in 2009 ({{ISBN|978-1-60309-025-4}}). this was followed in 2012 by the publication of ''The Lovely Horrible Stuff'' (Top Shelf), a continuation of the autobiographical theme which playfully investigates our relationship with money.