Outside the world of horror, he wrote a series of fantasy stories starring Ryre the Swordsman, who battles enemies on an alien world called Tond. Initially published in various anthologies, these stories were finally gathered in the collection "Far Away & Never" (Necronomicon Press, July 1996). In 1976 he 'completed' three of Robert E. Howard's unfinished Solomon Kane stories, "Hawk of Basti", "The Castle of the Devil" and "The Children of Asshur" (published in 1978 and 1979). By the time Arkham House published his second hardcover collection of horror stories, "The Height of the Scream" (1976), he was beginning to be seen as one of the major modern writers of horror.  1976 also saw the publication of Campbell's first novel, "The Doll Who Ate His Mother", which immediately drew acclaim from figures such as Fritz Leiber and T.E.D. Klein. In this and "The Face that Must Die" (1979), Campbell began to fully explore the enigma of evil, touching on the psychological themes of possession, madness and alienation which feature in many of his subsequent novels. He also continued to write short stories, mainly supernatural, receiving the World Fantasy Award for "The Chimney" (1977) and "Mackintosh Willy" (1980). Campbell has been a lifelong enthusiast of film; early stories such as "The Reshaping of Rossiter" (1964; an early version of "The Scar") show the influence of directors such as Alain Resnais, and as early as 1969 Campbell had become the film reviewer for BBC Radio Merseyside. He worked in Merseyside on the Friday edition of "Breakfast" and less frequently on Claire Hamilton's Sunday show. A longer version of his Merseyside reviews appeared on the Radio Merseyside website, where he also reviewed DVDs. His love of old movies features prominently in two of Campbell's later novels, "Ancient Images" and "The Grin of the Dark". Campbell wrote novelisations and introductions for a series of novelisations of Universal horror films. The series has a rather complex publishing history. They were published in paperback in 1977 in the US, with uniform packaging, by Berkley Medallion Books as "The Universal Horror Library". All six of the Berkley editions were published under the house name 'Carl Dreadstone'; all six of the US editions featured stills from the relevant films. It is believed this set was made available as boxed set in slipcase, as well as sold individually.