Thursday, 26th of October, 2000

Readers of this blog will be familiar, at least through me, with the work of the fantastic comics writer Eddie Campbell. As of last weekend, many more people will be familiar with him, as there was a glowing article on him on the first two-page spread of the Australian’s Review section.

Well, in a bid to be the stupidest people in the world, Aussie Customs up in Perth, on that very day, decided to ban all copies of From Hell (the utterly brilliant graphic novel about the times and circumstances of the Jack the Ripper murders, by Alan Moore and illustrated by Eddie) from entering the country. The reason? There is one scene (one of few actually graphic scenes in the book, which is entirely black & white) in which a breast is cut off a (dead) woman’s body. No matter that this is an established fact, nor that Moore & Campbell depict it as occuring during, basically, a doctor’s autopsy.
Ah well, Australia eh? Wouldn’t have thought, but then again… look who’s in government.
Let’s hope it all settles quickly enough and all Australians can have the opportunity of buying this truly great work of literature, in any medium, in the shops again.

Go to the Eddie Campbell Comics website to read the latest updates and send words of encouragement.

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