Mr. Rob Salkowitz at Emphasis Added gives a blazing wildfire of a review to Eddie Campbell’s Fate of the Artist.

Salkowitz places his reflection on Eddie Campbell’s book squarely in the modern artistic dilemna, and you can read it all on his blog here.

Meanwhile, an excerpt:

Reading The Fate of the Artist is one of the most life-affirming activities I’ve done all year. Every page gives you something to think about if you’re so inclined, or you can sit back and enjoy Campbell’s skill as a storyteller (and appreciate his craft as an excellent and inventive illustrator). But in my opinion, it’s always worth celebrating when someone at this late date in our decadent era of cultural exhaustion still finds the motivation to explore the knotty issues of art and philosophy, and is able to pull it off in such grand style.

There’s a whole gamut of provocative material to be found in the rest of the article. Should stoke the fires of FATE OF THE ARTIST discussions for a while to come.

Of course, I can’t help but wonder who he means when he says

Campbell decamped from the UK in the late 1980s to take up the life of a family man in suburban Australia. In his advancing years, he has turned into a “lovable eccentric” within the comic community – the kind of figure that the Gen-X editors now enthroned at the various publishers will give some work to when they want to seem edgy and adventurous.

Maybe he’s talking about Marvel or DC. I’m too old to be Gen X anyway. And I’m not enthroned, I have a tiny office in the Flatiron building. Must be Marvel or DC.