48 pages. Published by Eddie Campbell Comics

Three years later and I don't feel 100% comfortable with this review. I think I've oversimplified things a bit and read too much into other areas. Still, as a reaction to the piece it has some value and shows that this book has a hell of a lot to give over the years. Rereading this review now it could be about a completely different comic.

Eddie Campbell has gone on record many times as saying that this is the best work he's ever done. It's certainly very good, but this ceaseless praise from himself indicates something more about the comic. Graffiti Kitchen comprises part of the Alec continuity being autobiographical strips which have been appearing since his small press days in the early 1980s with the character of Alec playing Eddie's part. As such we can safely assume that the stories are true, or at least very heavily based on truth. They are told in a simple diary style - this happened, then this happened - which does betray the complexity of what is being told, for here we deal with the realm of emotions, relationships and pure humanity. The intensity and simplicity of the stories is what gives them their power.

Graffiti Kitchen is Eddie's most personal and revealing work. From the opening he is wallowing in the Self. "Watch me. I'm the most important guy in this bestiary" he declares. "I walk with a forward tilt and cut through brick walls with my beak. But here I am adopting the human position to listen to a drunk named Jimmy Fulton." Alec is the centre of his universe. Everything revolves around him. This relentless self-absorption continues through the whole book and we end as we began with Alec declaring himself "truly mythical"

At the time the events in this story were going on it is safe to assume that Eddie was doing Alec strips on a regular basis. That these events (or rather the repercussions of these events) did not come into those comics is important. Because they were so deeply personal and self-indulgent it is probable that Eddie was either unaware or more likely unable to put them down on paper. It is only with hindsight and reflection, far away from it all in Australia with his wife and child, that he has been able to depersonalise his former self into the Alec character and put everything into context.

Whereas the previous Alec strips were about recent history, he is now dealing with the distant past. Alec is "truly mythical" for Eddie these days. This mythology is also what makes the comic so great. With many comics in the autobiographical genre the creator is communicating their life at the current time and any message is bundled up with the emotions and prejudices they're experiencing. This can make for good comics but the universality of the message is severely diluted through this personalisation. With Graffiti Kitchen Eddie has managed to keep the feel of his Alec strips but add to them the benefit of hindsight. This means that the story communicates with anyone who has been there, and being there simply means having dealt with Other People with all the mess and confusion involved in such encounters.

Graffiti Kitchen is a piece about immaturity told by a very mature creator. Not mature in the sense that he knows it all now and can look back with disdain on his former self. Rather he can now see what was actually going on and can understand where he came from. Celebrate it even. I'm even tempted to say we can learn from this book but to do so would trivialise it. In fact on the first page (that first page! Everything you need to know about the comic is here!) he says "Today I'm reading a book that tells me to move on to new adventures. Tomorrow I'm reading another book." You don't learn from books or other people. You learn from yourself. And the trick is, you don't even know it at the time.

Review © Pete Ashton

Link: Official history of the Alec stories on Eddie's site.

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This piece was written for the BugPowder catalogue after discussing the book with Jez Higgins during a walk of his dog around a park in Bearwood, West Midlands. As such some of his ideas were integrated with my own and so, non-specific, retroactive credit is hereby given!