Campbell, Ross 1979-

PERSONAL:

Born 1979. Education: Attended college.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rochester, NY.

CAREER:

Writer and illustrator.

WRITINGS:

GRAPHIC NOVELS

(Illustrator) Jen Van Meter and Christine Norrie, Hopeless Savages: Too Much Hopeless, Volume 3, Oni Press (Portland, Oregon), 2004.

(Illustrator) Antony Johnston, Spooked, Volume 1, Oni Press (Portland, Oregon), 2004.

(And illustrator) Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings, Volume 1, Oni Press (Portland, Oregon), 2004.

(And illustrator) Wet Moon: Unseen Feet, Volume 2, Oni Press (Portland, Oregon), 2006.

(And illustrator) The Abandoned, Tokyopop (Los Angeles, CA), 2006.

Author and illustrator of Mountain Girl, self-published, 2006. Contributor of illustrations to comics, including Typewriter Anthology #5: Some Robots, David Youngblood, 2002; Too Much Hopeless Savages, Volume 3: Oni Press, 2003; Spooked, Oni Press, 2003; Nate and Steve #3 Epilogue, FishStick Comics; also illustrator for "Exalted" game books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ross Campbell is a comics writer and illustrator whose first solo graphic novel, Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings, focuses on new art student Cleo and her friends at college. Much of the story revolves around Cleo's relationships, including her relationship with her sister and her paranoid reactions to some people. Someone seems to be out to "get" Cleo by plastering "Cleo Eats It" flyers around campus. "Wet Moon is the sort of book that you'll really want to read twice," wrote a contributor to the Read about Comics Web site. The writer went on to note: "There's a lot going on under the surface … waiting to be unearthed by the reader, even while on the surface you can just enjoy reading about the lives of several friends."

Campbell received good reviews for his first solo outing as writer and artist. "Pervading everything is the slow, oppressive feel of the weight of a Southern day," noted a contributor to the Comics Worth Reading Web site. "This book is gothic in more than one sense; beyond the characters' costumes, it's a sprawling story of a variety of unusual characters, combining to create a mosaic of their experiences." Randy Lander, writing on the Fourth Rail Web site, noted: "Campbell does a pretty good rendition of the minutiae of everyday college life, when you're just making the transition into pre-adulthood, and he mixes in a very atmospheric sense of place with … gothic elements that make Wet Moon compelling for a wide range of readers." Lander also noted: "Wet Moon is an amazing debut for a stellar new talent, one whose art style will turn heads immediately but whose unusual and engaging writing style will keep those eyes on the page."

In The Abandoned, Campbell tells the story of a transformed world following a hurricane and power outage. It seems that the devastation is widespread, and everyone over their early twenties who was killed returns from the dead as a zombie. As a result, it is a ragtag group of malcontent youths who are struggling to survive by sometimes literally killing their parents. In the meantime, Rylie is a lesbian living in a small southern town and trying to establish a relationship with Naomi. "His characters are solidly fleshy, realistic and with presence," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Reviewers also noted the complexity of the book's overall plot. Benjamin Russell, writing in the School Library Journal, called the novel "an amazingly constructed horror story that operates on several levels of despair and grotesquery." A contributor to the Buried.com Web site referred to The Abandoned as "a well written book, with fleshed-out (no pun intended) characters and a fast-moving story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kliatt, September 1, 2006, Jennifer Feigelman, review of The Abandoned, p. 35.

Publishers Weekly, March 20, 2006, review of The Abandoned, p. 43.

School Library Journal, September 1, 2006, Benjamin Russell, review of The Abandoned, p. 242.

ONLINE

Buried.com,http://www.buried.com/ (May 3, 2006), interview with author; (April 20, 2006), review of The Abandoned.

Comics Worth Reading,http://comicsworthreading.com/ (March 21, 2006), review of Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings; (January 31, 2007), "Ross Campbell Quits Tokyopop."

Fourth Rail,http://www.thefourthrail.com/ (May 14, 2007), Randy Lander, review of Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings.

IGN,http://comics.ign.com/ (March 9, 2006), A.E. Sparrow, review of The Abandoned.

Newsarama,http://www.newsarama.com/ (May 14, 2007), Benjamin Ong Pang Kean, "Ross Campbell Talks The Abandoned," interview with author.

Read about Comics,http://www.readaboutcomics.com/ (January 25, 2005), review of Wet Moon: Feeble Wanderings.

Ross Campbell Home Page and Web log,http://www.greenoblivion.com (May 14, 2007).

Sequential Tart,http://www.sequentialtart.com/ (May 14, 2007), Jamaica Dyer, "Darkness, Romance, Dreams, and Moonlight: Ross Campbell," interview with author.

Suicide Girls,http://suicidegirls.com/ (June 19, 2006), Daniel Robert Epstein, "Ross Campbell Creator of The Abandoned," interview with author.