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I think Campbell Inc. sounds souper.

June 27th, 2007
Author Graeme McMillan

Eddie Campbell talks about the lengths one will go to scratch an itch:

I had let the world know that I was something of an enthusiast for the old Batman stories, particularly late ’40s early ’50s (Schwartz, Sprang etc. -Here’s an article I wrote on the subject way back in 2001. I just reread it and I still like it.) I was invited to pitch a script idea for a proposed Batman to be drawn by Tony Millionaire. I wasn’t interested in that and I don’t know if it ever came about with another writer, but when I mentioned the whole thing to my pal White, he said he had been sitting on his own Batman idea for some time, and how dare I turn down the gig without asking him first. I mixed this up with half an idea of my own and pitched it to Joey Cavalieri at DC. Somehow we got in.

Then I made things complicated. I said that nothing would make me happier than to draw this myself. They said they didn’t allow a situation where a creator would both write and draw the same book unless he was ‘incorporated’. I mentioned this to Whitey, whom you may remember is a chartered accountant, so that’s exactly his field. He said, “It’s not as complicated as you think. A company’s just a box of documents you can keep under your bed.” And it doesn’t cost too much either, well compared to the amounts I’ve been bandying about here of late. Now, companies are usually named and indexed by having two unassociated words hinged together (well, this is the campbellian explanation), so he finds a combination that he figures will embarrass me, runs the checks to confirm it’s not already in use, and next thing you know I’m director of a company named ‘Antelope Pineapple Pty. Ltd’, just so I can get to draw Batman.

2 Responses to “I think Campbell Inc. sounds souper.”
  1. Randy Says:

    man, if he had to go with African deer - watery fruit combo, why not just do Antelope Cantaloupe?

  2. Mysterious Stranger Says:

    Randy said - “man, if he had to go with African deer - watery fruit combo, why not just do Antelope Cantaloupe?”

    Because Antelope Cantaloupe is the secret name of the company that’s behind all those Viagra and imitation Rolex spam emails you get every day?

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