Rare early Eddie Campbell comic offered on eBay

By John Freeman on October 18, 2018

A rare, short run, self published comic from the 1980s by Eddie Campbell is currently being offered on eBay – featuring some early work by top British indie comic talent.

In 1982, Eddie Campbell – today better known as the artist on graphic novels such as Alec and From Hell – put out a photocopied small press comic, Reality Advertiser. The cover was hand-coloured with a different playing card glued to each cover (the name was a play on Fantasy Advertiser, the most popular comics fanzine of the time).

The comic features “The Company Van with Alec” by Eddie, Phil Elliott‘s “A Tale from Gimbley” and “Georgette”, written by Eddie and drawn by Dave Harwood.

A little piece of British comics history, Phil, who’s the seller, recalls Eddie got in touch with him after Paul Gravett gave him a copy of his two mini-comics, one of which featured Dave Gimbley .

“He invited me to contribute a strip for his new venture, Reality Advertiser,” Phil recalls.

“My memory of all this is a little vague but as far as I can recall, previously, Eddie had been involved with the British Amateur Press Association. Eddie produced a fanzine titled Flick! through BAPA but that was limited to only a few people and I think he was keen to broaden his market. And with the recently established Fast Fiction table at the London Westminster comic marts and its distribution network here was a way.”

This is a fascinating slice of comics arcana from the dawn of the 1980s Independent comics boom, so check out the auction here on eBay.

Thanks to Phil Elliott for the heads up on this item

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.