From Hell Hardcover – Illustrated, October 4, 2016

In the late 1880s in Victorian London, a series of murders shocked Great Britain. Prostitutes from London's White Chapel district were turning up murdered - not only murdered, but viciously mutilated, carved up and left for display in the streets. The police were left with many clues but no idea as to who was responsible. The public, encouraged by daily newspapers and tabloids, went into a frenzy of fear, speculation and rumor-mongering, culminating when the killer sent a piece of a victim's liver to the police. After that, hundreds of fake letters, many written in red or blood, claiming to be from Jack the Ripper, streamed in to the London Police departments.Alan Moore, writer of such comics as V For Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and the recently filmed Watchmen, wrote the novel From Hell, which was originally serialized as a comic book in 13 issues. (From Hell was also made into a movie in 2001 with Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, but like many other movies made from comics, should be avoided until after you've read the comic.)The comic begins many years after the murders, as the main investigator and a "psychic" look back on their lives and their roles in the events. If there was to be one main character, it would be Dr. Gull, physician to the Queen of England, and it turns out, an expert in human anatomy, surgery and deception. The story is highly sexual, with many highly suggestive scenes of sexual encounters between prostitutes, princes, married couples and the victims themselves. Each of the victims is introduced, and with the length of the novel approaching 600 hundred pages, much time is given to their stories, their work and their murders.One of the advantages of the graphic novel over a traditional book is the visual advantage that the comics give the reader. One scene in particular, of a murdered prostitute laying in the street, is shown over nine panels. The murder takes place in the first; by the third, strangers pass her by on the street; by the 8th and 9th panels, the police have discovered her body and a small crowd gathers to watch. While there is no sympathy extended to the serial killer himself, perhaps one of the most moving sequences in the book is when the killer, now captured and locked away in an insane asylum, moments before his death, sees his life flash literally before his eyes. It is even more convincing when you can see his life, his memories and his consciousness leaving his body, only to drift to the darkness and cold of his death.The style of artist Eddic Campbell is at first very minimalist, as it looks as if he scratched his quill pen to some stiff parchment. His drawings are moody and dark, his line work at times thick and solid, sometimes like scribbles. London itself sits back upon dark skies and the air of criminality, and the 1880s are depicted vividly with horse-drawn carriages, impressive architecture and the formal fashions of the day.From Hell is a fascinating story, a masterful graphic novel, which should be read by teens in high school or with their parent's approval.

This is an ingenious hatching of a theory of the Whitechapel Murders case, one that flies in the face of all that's good and civilized in Victorian Britain and the British Empire at its peak, despite all those well-known wens, warts, and suppurating lesions.And perhaps the greatest graphic novel yet produced, despite the oftentimes nearly illegible lettering in what I must assume is a reduced page size from the normal magazine- or comic-page sizing of around 8.5” x 11” or so. (You may need strong reading glasses to make out some of the text.) Alan Moore is an indefatigable researcher and brilliant storyteller. Eddie Campbell's spidery, scratchy drawings suit the murky mood of the story. (And even so, when called upon to render historic London architecture, Campbell’s panels burst into glorious, meticulous copperplate-etching-type, scaled architecture-textbook detail and quality.)This book gripped me from front to back. The conspiracy Moore conjures, supported by 42 pages of dense notes and an additional graphic appendix, unfolds splendidly. It includes, of course, the London neighborhoods, and volumes (or is it simple myriad panels) on 19th century social mores, to include, yes, all those whores and other species of “loose women” and, to our eyes today, reprehensible men, but also – for those who are unprepared, but this is no spoiler, because the Ripper stories have been in circulation for sometimes more than a century – royalty, to include Victoria, Druidism and the Old Gods, Freemasonry and its secrets and rituals, icons of 19th century art, architecture, and literature, details of contemporary police and Scotland Yard procedure, and, believe me, very much more, crammed into its 572 pages.And on my next visit to London I'm going to bring with me chapter 4, as my guide to the buildings of Nicholas Hawksmoor. For an architecture buff, as I am, who has stomped around London peering into old churches and ancient structures, as I have, chapter 4, and its beautiful renderings of some of London’s greatest churches, was a particular unexpected, delightful serendipity.I would urge every reader to narrate chapter 14 aloud, in the most refined English accent they are capable of producing. I found it to be a chilling reading experience.And parents, if the title fails to warn you sufficiently, do examine the contents closely before leaving this one out for the kiddies on a rainy Saturday. The copy I read had no "for mature readers only" markings. From Hell is most assuredly for mature readers only and deserves, at the very least, an “NC-17” rating.This is simply a terrific read and one that, I see from other reviews, will require from many a measure of patience. Moore unfolds his tale at what some will find a too-leisurely pace. Other readers have greater toleration for both glacial pace and a carefully studied narrative ambiguity. For those of us who wallow in detail, texture, and explanatory endnotes, as well as a horror stories that, in the end, are truly disturbing, this should be just the ticket.

Like the Ripper strips away at is victims, Moore stuffs this bird exponentially giving a gluttonous serving of the arguably first modern day serial killer. Moore is the standard of the brilliant and astute student, well rounded in his efforts. He will bring his angle and create a sturdy foundation and a hell of a dwelling for fiction, where is served, the richest food for thought. It’s all there laid out, the process and reasoning in the end of the book just as entertaining as the story itself.Moore, like any great author doesn’t just provide a narrative, he hones in on the time and setting and the spirit of the times and its people. The well stratified view of who walks the streets in 19th century England and how they are fleshed out. No matter the strata, he displays the culture of a people, somehow whether in a classroom or a carriage riding around in the streets, literature, mathematics, philosophy, even quantum physics will prevail in a panal of comic book action.The black and white art is classic and undeniable as moody set pieces range throughout. Adding to the dodgy underbelly. Surprisingly, how the gore not only came through, neutral also, manifested itself and claimed the rest of the senses and creating the shadow world of what lies just beneath.Moore’s work will be reread, because there will be so much Ed missed and overlooked, at least by me. There is a richness that calls out for a brilliant leftover feast.