At its heart, BACCHUS is a wickedly entertaining deconstruction of the Grecian myths, told by a master of the medium. But what's deliciously clever about it is the duality in which Eddie Campbell delivers his story, balancing the present day misadventures of his gods with their past tales of antiquity. Campbell cuts through the "holier than thou" claptrap that often accompanies such stories and builds characters we can actually relate to. These are deceitful, vengeful, vain, abusive gods. Very, very human.
This is never more evident than in THE GODS OF BUSINESS, the second volume in the BACCHUS series. The Telchines, one-time merchants to the gods turned modern day yuppie business tycoons, are determined to claim the power of The Eyeball Kid, the omnipotent slayer of Zeus (with nineteen eyes!). Standing in their way is Joe Theseus, the legendary hero of Minos, now the heartless, backstabbing, miserable boss of a global crime syndicate. Bacchus, the titular character who plays a background role in this volume, says it best, "The mantles of the gods have been passed down to a bunch of scallywags."
A heaping of over-the-top action and splendid farce, THE GODS OF BUSINESS is also a surprisingly tragic tale of what goes around comes around. And in the end, you might actually feel bad for our boy Joe, the antagonist of the first BACCHUS book. Well, maybe just a little bit.
Peter Aaron Rose is a writer, producer and technologist who lives and works in San Francisco, CA. Under the pseudonym "Peter Siegel", he recently authored Killing Demons, a graphic novel available from Engine Press and Platinum Studios.
