Clive Barker

Clive Barker
Barker at the Science Fiction Museum in 2007
Born (1952-10-05) 5 October 1952
Liverpool, England
Occupation Author, film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, playwright, painter, illustrator and visual artist
Nationality British
Genre Horror, fantasy
Partners

John Gregson (1975-1986)

David Armstrong (1996-2009)

John Ray Raymond Jr. (2009-present)
Website
www.clivebarker.com

Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, film director, and visual artist. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works, and his fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser and Candyman series. He was also the executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters.

Barker's paintings and illustrations have been featured in galleries in the United States as well as within his own books. He has created original characters and series for comic books, and some of his more popular horror stories have been adapted to comics.

Early life

Barker was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, the son of Joan Ruby (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm.[1][2] He was educated at Dovedale Primary School, Quarry Bank High School and the University of Liverpool, where he studied English and Philosophy.[3]

When he was three years old, Barker witnessed the French skydiver Léo Valentin plummet to his death during a performance at an air show in Liverpool. Barker would later allude to Valentin in many of his stories.[4]

Writing career

Barker is an author of horror/fantasy. He began writing horror early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6) and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991), and Sacrament (1996).

When the Books of Blood were first published in the United States in paperback, Stephen King was quoted on the book covers: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker."[5] As influences on his writing, Barker lists Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, William S. Burroughs, William Blake, and Jean Cocteau, among others.[6]

He is the writer of the best-selling Abarat series, and plans on producing two more novels in the series.[7]

Personal life

In 2003, Barker received the Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards.[8]

Barker has been critical of organized religion throughout his career, but in early interviews, he stated that the Bible influences his work and spirituality.[9] In a 2003 appearance on Politically Incorrect, Barker even stated that he was a Christian after Ann Coulter implied he was not,[10] although years later, he denied this via Facebook.[11]

Barker said in a December 2008 online interview (published in March 2009) that he had polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars.[12]

As of 2015, he is a member of the board of advisers for the Hollywood Horror Museum.

Relationships

In a 20 August 1996 appearance on the radio call-in show Loveline, Barker stated that during his teens he had several relationships with older women, and came to identify himself as homosexual by 18 or 19 years old.[13] Barker has been openly gay since the early 1990s.[14] His relationship with John Gregson lasted from 1975 until 1986. It was during this period, with the support that Gregson provided, that Barker was able to write the Books of Blood series and The Damnation Game.

He later spent thirteen years with photographer David Armstrong, described as his husband in the introduction to Coldheart Canyon; they separated in 2009.[15]

Barker lives in Beverly Hills with his partner, Johnny Ray Raymond Jr.

Film work

Barker has an interest in film production. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. After his film Nightbreed (1990) flopped, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions (1995). The short story "The Forbidden", from Barker's Books of Blood, provided the basis for the 1992 film Candyman and its two sequels. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters (1998), which received major critical acclaim. He had been working on a series of film adaptations of his The Abarat Quintet books under Disney's management, but because of creative differences, the project was cancelled.

In 2005, Barker and horror film producer Jorge Saralegui created the film production company Midnight Picture Show with the intent of producing two horror films per year.[16]

In October 2006, Barker announced through his website that he will be writing the script to a forthcoming remake of the original Hellraiser film.[17][18] He is developing a film based on his Tortured Souls line of toys from McFarlane Toys.

Visual art

Barker is a prolific visual artist, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early '90s; on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996); and on the second printing of the original British publications of his Books of Blood series. Barker also provided the artwork for his young adult novel The Thief of Always and for the Abarat series. His artwork has been exhibited at Bert Green Fine Art in Los Angeles and Chicago, 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, and in Visions of Heaven and Hell, published in 2005 by Rizzoli Books.

He worked on the horror video game Clive Barker's Undying, providing the voice for the character Ambrose. Undying was developed by DreamWorks Interactive and released in 2001. He worked on Clive Barker's Jericho for Codemasters, which was released in late 2007.

Barker created Halloween costume designs for Disguise Costumes.[19][20]

Comic books

Barker published his Razorline imprint via Marvel Comics in 1993.

Barker horror adaptations and spinoffs in comics include the Marvel/Epic Comics 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. Barker served as a consultant and wrote issues of the Hellraiser anthology comic book.

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 publishing a 12 issue adaptation of Barker's novel The Great and Secret Show.

In December 2007, Chris Ryall and Clive Barker announced an upcoming collaboration of an original comic book series, Torakator, to be published by IDW.[21]

In October 2009, IDW published Seduth, co-written by Barker. The work was released with three variant covers.[22]

In 2011, Boom! Studios began publishing an original Hellraiser comic book series.

In 2013, Boom! Studios announced Next Testament, the first original story by Barker to be published in comic book format.

Works

Novels

Short story collections

  • Books of Blood (1984-1985)
  • The Essential Clive Barker: Selected Fiction (2000). Contains more than seventy excerpts from novels and plays and four full-length short stories.
  • Tonight, Again: Tales of Love, Lust and Everything in Between (2015). Contains 32 short stories.

Plays

  • Incarnations: Three Plays (1995)
  • Forms of Heaven: Three Plays (1996)

Nonfiction

Art
  • Visions of Heaven and Hell (2005)
  • Clive Barker: Imaginer series:
    1. Clive Barker: Imaginer Volume 1 (2014)
    2. Clive Barker: Imaginer Volume 2 (2015)
    3. Clive Barker: Imaginer Volume 3 (2016)
    4. Clive Barker: Imaginer Volume 4 (2017)
Essays

Toys

  • Tortured Souls (2001-2002). Series of twelve action figures (six designed in 2001 and six in 2002) and a novelette starring the characters of the first six action fIgures

Filmography

Year Title Director Producer Writer
1985 Underworld
No
1986 Rawhead Rex
No
1987 Hellraiser
No
No
1988 Hellbound: Hellraiser II
No
No
1990 Nightbreed
No
No
1992 Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
No
Candyman
No
No
1995 Lord of Illusions
No
No
No
1996 Hellraiser: Bloodline
No
1998 Gods and Monsters
No
2002 Saint Sinner
No
No
2006 The Plague
No
2008 The Midnight Meat Train
No
No
2009 Book of Blood
No
Dread
No
TBA Hellraiser
No
No
TBA Tortured Souls: Animae Damnatae
No
No
TBA Born
No

Video games

Critical studies of Clive Barker's work

  • Suzanne J. Barbieri, Clive Barker : Mythmaker for the Millennium. Stockport:British Fantasy Society, 1994, ISBN 0952415305.
  • Gary Hoppenstand, Clive Barker's short stories : imagination as metaphor in the Books of blood and other works. (With a foreword by Clive Barker). Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1994, ISBN 0899509843.
  • Linda Badley, Writing Horror and The Body : the fiction of Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice. London : Greenwood Press, 1996, ISBN 0313297169.
  • Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, (Ed.) Clive Barker - Dark imaginer. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. 280pp. ISBN 9780719096921.
  • Chris Morgan, "Barker, Clive", in David Pringle, ed., St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost and Gothic Writers. London: St. James Press, 1998, ISBN 1558622063
  • S. T. Joshi The Modern Weird Tale Jefferson, N.C. ; London : McFarland, 2001, ISBN 078640986X.
  • K. A. Laity, "Clive Barker" in: Richard Bleiler, ed. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror. New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003, ISBN 0684312506.
  • Edwin F. Casebeer, "Clive Barker (1952- )" in: Darren Harris-Fain (ed.) British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Since 1960. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson/Gale, 2002, ISBN 0787660051.
  • Smith, Andrew. "Worlds that Creep upon You: Postmodern Illusions in the Work of Clive Barker." In Clive Bloom, ed, Creepers: British Horror and Fantasy in the Twentieth Century. London and Boulder CO: Pluto Press, 1993, pp. 176–86.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Clive Barker Biography". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Jamie Bowman (19 May 2015). "As Clive Barker returns here's eight other Merseyside sci fi, fantasy and horror writers who have thrilled readers worldwide". liverpoolecho.
  4. ↑ Abrams, Michael (2006). Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-1-4000-5491-6.
  5. ↑ "The Official Clive Barker Resource : Revelations - News Stephen King Award - Speech". Clivebarker.info. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Influences". Clive Barker Revelations. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  7. ↑ "Official Clive Barker Website : The Beautiful Moment - Abarat Books Four, Five". clivebarker.info.
  8. ↑ "Publications". GLAAD. Archived from the original on 13 December 2003. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Official Clive Barker Website - Spirituality". Clivebarker.info. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Presenter: Bill Maher (25 April 2003). "Season 1, Episode 10". Politically Incorrect. Fairfax District, Los Angeles. 60 minutes in. HBO. CBS Television City.
  11. ↑ "Clive Barker". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  12. ↑ "Art and the Artist: An Interview with Clive Barker". Strange Horizons. March 2009. Archived from the original on 3 January 2010.
  13. ↑ "Clive Barker". Classic Loveline. Episode 233. Los Angeles, California, United States. 20 August 1996. KROQ-FM. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Night, Bell (1 March 2013). "Clive Barker – Not Just an Author!". Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  15. ↑ "Famous horror writer Clive Barker sued by an ex-boyfriend who says author gave him HIV". Daily Mail. 6 June 2012. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
  16. ↑ "Clive Barker to form Midnight Picture Show". Advocate.com. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  17. ↑ "The Official Clive Barker Website - Revelations Interview 15". Clivebarker.info. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  18. ↑ Archived 22 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  19. ↑ "Dress Up Like Clive Barker's Nightmares". Dreadcentral.com. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  20. ↑ "Clive Barkers Enters the 'Dark Bazaar' with JAKKS Pacific". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  21. ↑ Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ Archived 15 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  23. ↑ Gronli, Jonathan. "What Happened To: Clive Barker's Demonik". Technology Tell. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
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