Bacchus first appeared as a character in
Deadface (March
1987), a
Harrier Comics title which lasted eight issues. In issue #5 Campbell spun the character out of that book and into his own comic, the eponymous
Bacchus, a book that lasted two issues, focusing the
Deadface comic on Joe Theseus, an updated version of
Theseus. When
Harrier Comics ceased publication, Campbell managed to sell stories containing the character to numerous publishers; the
American publisher
Dark Horse, where the character appeared in their anthology title
Dark Horse Presents, and who also collected the
Deadface comics in the ''Deadface: Immortality Isn't Forever
collection published November 1990; and two British publishers, Trident Comics, where the stories appeared in their black-and-white anthology, Trident, and Atomeka, appearing in A1'', another black-and-white anthology. Dark Horse then collected these short stories and serialized them in
comic book form as the three-issue mini-series
Deadface: Doing the Islands with Bacchus (
1991), as well as serializing the adventures of another character from the mythos, The Eyeball Kid (grandson of
Argus "all eyes"), in the Dark Horse anthology
Cheval Noir, which was later extended and repackaged as a three-issue mini-series,
The Eyeball Kid in
1992. After these collections and repackaging, Dark Horse commissioned the new storyline,
Deadface: Earth, Water, Air, & Fire, a four-issue mini-series published in 1992. Following this in May
1993 came
1,001 Nights of Bacchus, a single-issue comic book compilation of various other previously uncollected storylines which Campbell had placed with various publishers but which he had also created within a unified framing sequence. The next storylines related to the Bacchus mythos were again serialized, this time in
Dark Horse Presents as
Hermes vs the Eyeball Kid (1993-
1994) and
The Picture of Doreen Grey (
1995), the former also collected as a three-issue mini-series in 1994-1995. The final work in the Bacchus mythos to be published by Dark Horse was also the first time Bacchus appeared within a comic published in color,
The Ghost in the Glass, published in 1995. At this point Campbell decided to self-publish his own comic, ''Eddie Campbell's Bacchus
, in which he published two new storylines featuring Bacchus, King Bacchus
and Banged Up
, while concurrently revising and reprinting the material already published, and also adding new stories to the 1,001 Nights of Bacchus'' sequence. The Bacchus character's stories came to an end after the
Banged Up storyline, and although Campbell eventually finished the reprinting of the previously published material, he continued publishing ''Eddie Campbell's Bacchus
, updating the name to Eddie Campbell's Bacchus Magazine'' to reflect the growing number of text pieces he was running, before canceling the book with issue #60. Campbell also published these revised storylines in the
graphic novel format in collaboration with the publisher
Top Shelf.
Creators Campbell worked with numerous collaborators on the many series and appearances Bacchus made, beginning with
Phil Elliott, whom Campbell approached to color the
Deadface and
Bacchus covers.
Ed 'Ilya' Hillyer worked as inker on the last four issues of
Deadface, before taking full art chores on
The Eyeball Kid series initially serialized in
Cheval Noir.
Wes Kublick collaborated with the writing on some of the short stories which made up
Deadface: Doing the Islands with Bacchus, and
Stephen Bissette, Phil Elliott and
Pete Mullins collaborated on the art on other stories in this sequence. (Mullins helping to redo Elliott's story, which was reworked and retitled.) Kublick again helped Campbell with the writing on the first two issues of the
Deadface: Earth, Water, Air, & Fire series.
1,001 Nights of Bacchus saw collaborations on the writing front with Kublick,
Marcus Moore,
Daren White, and
Mark Campbell, with Mark Campbell also writing one story in this sequence solely. Artistic collaborators on this sequence were
Steve Stamatiadis,
Dylan Horrocks, and Pete Mullins, who all collaborated on one story each.
Hermes vs. The Eyeball Kid is credited as being written by Campbell and Kublick, and drawn by Campbell, Mullins, and
April Post, with Mullins, again assisting with the art on the latter two-thirds of
The Picture of Doreen Grey.
The Ghost in the Glass featured art by
Teddy Kristiansen. Mullins again assisted on
King Bacchus, with another credit for April Post on part 9. The final serial,
Banged Up, saw
Marcus Moore again assist with some of the stories and Mullins assist on almost all of the art with a little help from
Steve Francis on part 8. ==Other notable characters==