By ye gods (of revelry)! Today sees Top Shelf release the long-awaited Bacchus (Omnibus Edition): Volume One, collecting together the first half of this grand old tale - incorporating the trades Immortality Isn't Forever, The Gods of Business, Doing the Islands with Bacchus, The Eyeball Kid: One Man Show, and Earth, Water, Air & Fire - into one bumper 560 page epic....
I was lucky enough to read a few of the early trades back when I was lucky enough to share a studio with Frank Quitely (and was luckier enough still to pick up the rest of the somewhat scarce 10 volumes for affordable prices on ebay), being immediately attracted to the character's distinctive look - as per my Kano post, it all goes back to Karloff - obviously helped in part by Eddie Campbell's gloriously sketchy artwork - a prime example of a supreme talent simply making something look far easier than it actually is....
If anything ever truly deserved to be called a "graphic novel" then this is it - something so human, so wonderfully understated (though that's not to say the book isn't without it's fair share of action and drama) and so very alive. When you think of all the meaningless, by-the-numbers-making-up-the-numbers comics that are farted into existence by The Big Two the sheer importance of Bacchus cannot be denied. Don't beg, borrow or steal a copy.... Buy it!
*er, but not just yet, as checking the link the release seems to have been pushed back from the 7th to the 23rd....*
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