Excerpt from an interview I did in 2000 published on my Ultrazine.org (not online anymore).
EDDIE CAMPBELL: The Birth Caul is the best thing that Alan has ever written. He wrote it as
a theatrical performance monologue which he performed in the old county
court house in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on his 40th birthday. It was
recorded and released as a CD and subsequently we adapted it into a
comic.
It is a dark and profound piece of poetry which made extraordinary demands upon me as an artist, particularly the chapters on childhood where he has re-created perfectly more than anything else I have ever read the feelings of growing up.
I had to come up with many unusual solutions to the problems of matching images to such an elusive text. In one instance I smashed up an alarm clock and glued parts of it to the page. In another I stitched together a miniature pair of child's pajamas and glued them to the page.
It is a dark and profound piece of poetry which made extraordinary demands upon me as an artist, particularly the chapters on childhood where he has re-created perfectly more than anything else I have ever read the feelings of growing up.
I had to come up with many unusual solutions to the problems of matching images to such an elusive text. In one instance I smashed up an alarm clock and glued parts of it to the page. In another I stitched together a miniature pair of child's pajamas and glued them to the page.
