Clive Barker

= Clive Barker =

Clive Barker, British author, director and visual artist, born October 5, 1952, Liverpool, England.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, starting out with pure horror writing early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 - 6), and later moving towards epic modern-day fantasy with some horror elements. Barker's distinctive style is characterized by the notion of hidden fantastical worlds existing side by side with our own (an idea he shares with contemporary Neil Gaiman), the role of sexuality in the supernatural (in his later work, particularly homosexuality), and the construction of coherent, complex and detailed mythologies.

Table of contents

1 Movies
2 Visual Art
3 Sexual Orientation
4 Bibliography
5 External Links

Movies

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his movies have received varying acclaim (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, now rereleased together, to moderate critical acclaim.

Visual Art

Barker is also a prolific and talented visual artist, working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books, as well as more recently holding independent exhibitions. He worked on the creative side of a horror game, Clive Barker's Undying (Dreamworks Interactive, 2001), to moderate success and acclaim.

Sexual Orientation

While some fans perceive the frequent homosexual themes in his work as part of the "horror", Clive Barker himself has been openly homosexual since the early 1990s.

Bibliography

Novels
- 1985 The Damnation Game
- 1986 The Hellbound Heart
- 1987 Weaveworld
- 1989 The Great and Secret Show (first 'Book of the Art')
- 1991 Imajica
- 1992 The Thief of Always
- 1994 Everville (second 'Book of the Art')
- 1996 Sacrament
- 1998 Galilee
- 2001 Coldheart Canyon: A Hollywood Ghost Story
- 2002 Abarat (first book of the Abarat Quartet]
Collections
- 1984-1985 Books of Blood (vol. 1 through 6 were released between 1984 and 1985)
- 1985 Cabal
- 1987 In the Flesh
- 1987 The Inhuman Condition