The Second Fake Death of Eddie Campbell
Eddie Campbell
IDW Publishing, 2023
In this sequel to The Fate of The Artist (which is reprinted in this collection), creator Eddie Campbell is again absent from his own autobiography, but with a new twist. The earlier book had the subtitle "An Autobiographical Novel, With Typographical Anomalies, In Which the Author Does Not Appear as Himself." This one says "A Pandemic Graphic Novel by Eddie Campbell." The main setting is the endless Covid lockdown, in which everyone wears a mask and needs a haircut. Campbell is having trouble getting a new comic going and laments the grayness of lockdown life. He is acting so unlike himself that his wife Audrey hires a stereotypical hard-boiled private detective named Royler Boom to investigate: she has become convinced that her husband is an imposter. In fact, she thinks the imposter is actor Richard Siegrist, who had played the part of Eddie in the earlier novel. This may sound incredibly meta, but hijinks ensue, including Campbell's usual tributes to classic comic strips, including the recurring "Life's Too Complicated" (in which he always inexplicably loses his trousers) and "Life In Lockdown" (which repurposes classic one-panel cartoons, complete with the look of aged newsprint). For all the goofy humor and sight gags the story actually climaxes with a downhill chase and the discovery of the real Eddie Campbell. He winds up in hospital with memory loss: completely at peace, and doesn't even remember what Covid is. It's the perfect ending for a character (who may or may not resemble the artist) who has spent the entire story being overwhelmed by life.
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