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Clive Barker (born October 5 1952) is an English author, film director and visual artist. Barker was born in Liverpool, England. Before reaching college, he went to the same schools as John Lennon. He studied English and philosophy at Liverpool University.
Barker's distinctive style is characterized by the notion of hidden fantastical worlds coexisting with our own (an idea he shares with contemporary Neil Gaiman), the role of sexuality in the supernatural and the construction of coherent, complex and detailed universes. Barker has referred to this style as "dark fantasy" or the "fantastique". His stories give equal time to the heavenly and awe-inspiring as to the hellish and horrific. When the Books of Blood were first published in the United States in cheap paperback editions, the originality, intensity and overall quality of the stories led popular author Stephen King to say of Barker: "I have seen the future of horror and its name is Clive Barker." (This is a paraphrase of a famous quote said of Bruce Springsteen at the beginning of his career). He himself prefers not to be limited to the image of a gore and horror writer. A critical analysis of Barker's work appears in S. T. Joshi's The Modern Weird Tale (2001).
Personal life
BibliographyNovels
Collections
BiographiesMoviesBarker has a keen interest in movie production, although his movies have received varying acclaim. The most successful was 1987's Hellraiser, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed, which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. He had been working on a series of movie adaptations of his The Abarat Quintet books under Disney's management, but has admitted that because of creative differences, this project will not now go ahead. He is also developing a film based on his Tortured Souls line of toys from McFarlane Toys. In October 2006, Barker announced through his official website that he will be writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser movie.[1] A short story titled "The Forbidden", from Barker's Books of Blood, provided the basis for the film Candyman and its two sequels. Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura is attached to direct Midnight Meat Train from Jeff Buhler's screenplay based on Barker's short story of the same name for Lakeshore Entertainment and Lionsgate for 2008 release. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim. Computer games
Visual art and playsBarker is also a prolific and talented visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings can be seen on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series. His artwork has been exhibited at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York and La Luz De Jesus in Los Angeles. Many of his sketches and paintings can be found in the collection Clive Barker, Illustrator, published in 1990 by Arcane/Eclipse Books. He also worked on the creative side of a horror computer game, Clive Barker's Undying, providing the voice for the character Ambrose, a homicidal maniac who is never without his enormous axe. Undying was developed by DreamWorks Interactive and released in 2001 to lackluster success but universal critical acclaim. Barker also provided the artwork for his young adult novel The Thief Of Always (1992) as well as the Abarat series. Barker announced in July 2006 that he has returned to the video game industry, working on Clive Barker's Jericho for Codemasters.[2] Barker's play Frankenstein in Love began receiving a rare staging in London in late September 2006. Comic booksA longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid (written first by James Robinson, then by future Matrix co-creator Larry Wachowski, with art by Steve Skroce), Hokum & Hex (written by Frank Lovece, art by Anthony Williams), Hyperkind (written by Fred Burke, art by Paris Cullins) and Saint Sinner (written by Elaine Lee, art by Max Douglas). A 2002 Barker telefilm titled Saint Sinner bore no relation to the comic. Barker horror adaptations and spin-offs in comics include the Marvel/Epic series Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Pinhead, The Harrowers, Book of the Damned and Jihad; Eclipse Books' series and graphic novels Tapping The Vein, Dread, Son of Celluloid, Revelations The Life of Death, Rawhead Rex and The Yattering and Jack, and Dark Horse Comics' Primal, among others. In 2005, IDW published a three-issue adaptation of Barker's children's fantasy novel The Thief of Always, written and painted by Kris Oprisko and Gabriel Hernandez. IDW is also currently publishing a 12 issue adaptation of Barker's novel The Great and Secret Show. See alsoReferencesNotes
Bibliography
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