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Clive Barker <span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>  Clive Barker (born October 5, 1952 Liverpool, England - ) is a British author, artist, and filmmaker, with a BA (with Honours) in English Literature, University of Liverpool, 1974. After university, Barker wrote plays for, directed, and acted in The Dog Company, a small touring theatre company he co-founded. Many of his early plays contained elements of the fantastic, erotic, and horrific that would later become part of his literary work. After reading Kirby McCauley's anthology Dark Forces (1980), Barker tried his hand at short fiction. The resulting stories were eventually published as The Books of Blood, Volumes 1-6 (1984 and 1985). It was, according to his biographer Douglas E. Winter, "a moment in which talent and time entwine and enrapture an audience eager to read and learn." Barker became one of "the true publishing phenomena of the 1980s." Barker's emergence from what had become a conforming genre "reshaped the way readers, writers, publishers perceived the short story—and, for a time, the literature of horror—while subverting the simplistic, ritualized conventions of genre." Barker's audacious and ambitious fiction was "lush . . . lurid . . . pushing at taboos of sex and violence." Seen as a new direction for horror, "Barker in fact vindicated its honourable past: the dark fantastic." His first novel, The Damnation Game (1985), both employed and defeated genre expectations. The epic Weaveworld (1987) is both fantasy and an inversion of fantasy. The Great and Secret Show: The First Book of the Art (1989) is about, in Barker's words, "Hollywood, sex, and Armageddon." The vast and vastly imaginative Imajica (1991) is a fantastical exploration of the Christian mythos. In The Thief of Always (1992), Barker's first work for children, a boy learns that fun has a high price tag. Everville: The Second of the Art (1994) continued The Great and Secret Show's journey toward revelation. "Below the overt narrative is a story of celebration, survival, despair and hope," Barker has said of the somewhat autobiographical Sacrament (1996), "It is a 'vision-quest' story about a man who is watching the world around him being reduced." Galilee: A Romance (1998) combines dynastic saga, romance, and the metaphysical, with fantasy elements tied closely to the realism. Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story (2001) merged themes explored in his earlier epics and the strong emotional currents of the more personal later novels with extreme sexuality in a novel about horror in the midst of Hollywood glamor. Barker has spent more than five years developing a series of children's books and created more than 500 oil paintings to illustrate the books. Abarat (2002) and Abarat II: Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004), are the first two books in the four-part series. Disney bought the rights to The Abarat Quartet with plans for film, television, merchandise, and amusement park and video game tie-ins.
FilmBarker emerged as a director with his adaptation of novella "The Hellbound Heart" (1986) into the film Hellraiser (1987), which became a franchise spawning seven sequels. Barker adapted his story "Cabal" (1988) into the film Nightbreed (1990), which he also directed. Barker's film career continued as executive producer on the film Candyman (based on his short story "The Forbidden") and its sequel, Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh. In 1995, he directed Lord of Illusions. Barker also executive produced Bill Condon's Academy Award-winning film, Gods and Monsters, in 1998. Barker produced Saint Sinner in 2002 (no relation to the comic) for The Sci Fi Channel. In addition to The Abarat Quartet, Barker and his production company Seraphim Films have several motion picture projects in development, including an upcoming slate of films under his genre label Midnight Picture Show with producing partner Jorge Saralegui.
Visual ArtBarker's artwork has been exhibited at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York, La Luz De Jesus in Los Angeles, and Bert Green Fine Art in Los Angeles. Many of his sketches and paintings can be found in the collections Clive Barker, Illustrator (1990), Clive Barker, Illustrator II (1993), and 2005'S Visions of Heaven and Hell.
Comic BooksMarvel Comics launched Barker's Razorline imprint in 1993. Four interrelated titles were based on detailed premises, titles, and lead characters created by Barker: Ectokid, Hokum & Hex, Hyperkind, and Saint Sinner. Ectokid was notable for having been written by future Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski. It teamed the Wachowskis with comic artist Steve Skroce, who would do storyboard work on The Matrix films. There have also been adaptations and spin-offs of his fiction. IDW published a three-issue adaptation of The Thief of Always and is publishing a 12-issue adaptation of The Great and Secret Show. External Links
To see specific information, such as individual books, please click the Clive Barker category link at the bottom of this article. To see other articles that reference Clive Barker, please click the What Links Here tool in the toolbox at the bottom of this page. Categories: Clive Barker | 1952 Births | Authors | Screenwriters | Producers | British Authors | British Screenwriters | British Producers | 1980s Authors | 1990s Authors | 2000s Authors | 1980s Screenwriters | 1990s Screenwriters | 2000s Screenwriters | 1990s Producers | 2000s Producers | 1980s Directors | 1990s Directors | 2000s Directors
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