Black Diamond Detective Agency
Black Diamond Detective Agency by Eddie Campbell. First Second Books. US$16.95 Paperback.
The Black Diamond Detective Agency is the latest from Scottish-born, Australian-based artist Eddie Campbell. Following on from his highly regarded, semi-autobiographical work The Fate of the Artist, Black Diamond (which isn’t to be confused with Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies Detective Agency series) sees Campbell return to a style similar to that which rocketed him to international stardom: From Hell, which was written with Alan Moore and subsequently turned into a film starring Johnny Depp.
Based on a screenplay by C. Gaby Mitchell and adapted and illustrated in sketchy, haunting watercolours by Campbell, The Black Diamond Detective Agency is set in the 19th century and tells the story of farmer John Hardin. When a mail train explodes near Hardin’s home he becomes the Black Diamond Detective Agency’s prime suspect. With a life he thought he’d left behind returning to haunt him and his wife missing, Hardin must try and prove his innocence while bringing the real criminals to justice.
Although the story is a relatively straightforward man on the run tale, it is a little difficult to follow to begin with because the reader isn’t privy to all the details of Hardin’s mysterious past. So understanding his motivations and why it is he goes on the run is puzzling. This is compounded by the several different names he answers to (the result of his past life) but when this is combined with a jump in time early in the story that has Hardin change his appearance to avoid the law, things get really confusing. However, once Hardin begins his search for the real criminals, the narrative becomes more apparent and easy to follow, in the process allowing you to learn more about Hardin and his motivations.
The secret to this book’s success is Campbell’s ability to draw the viewer into the story through his artwork. The dirt of the streets, the grime and the harsh realities of 19th century life come alive on the page thanks to Campbell’s sketchy, seemingly hastily constructed images that look like raw courtroom sketches (something Campbell has done). Rather than getting bogged down in ensuring that every streetlamp is historically accurate, Campbell simply paints what is relevant to the story and then moves on.
Black Diamond should reach a wide fiction readership but, because graphic “picture book” literature is generally looked down upon as nothing more than comics about unlikely muscly men in tights, it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. While this point of view is slowly changing (Shaun Tan’s graphic novel The Arrival was just awarded the Community Relations Commission Literary Award) this double standard (when they are aimed at children this kind of book can win serious prizes) still exists, meaning that authors such as Eddie Campbell, Alan Moore (Watchmen), Neil Gaiman (Sandman) and Art Spiegelman (Maus) are not reaching the audience that would appreciate their work if onlythe prejudice and ignorance could be overcome. A real shame. Hopefully with the publication books such as Black Diamond and books like The Arrival winning awards usually reserved for ‘traditional’ books a shift may begin to happen in public perception.
