About this title: Legendary comics writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell have created a gripping, hallucinatory piece of crime fiction about Jack the Ripper. Detailing the events that led up to the Whitechapel murders and the cover-up that followed, From Hell has become a modern masterpiece of crime noir and historical fiction.
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Description: Very Good. 0958578346 No annotation, underlining, or highlighting found inside. Graphic novel about the Jack the Ripper murders. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Top Shelf Production
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780958578349ISBN:0958578346
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. Soft cover copyright 2001, Top Shelf Production. Same ISBN, cover is different. Binding is tight and square, pages clean and unmarked. Slight shelf wear to corners and edges. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Diamond Comic Distributors
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780958578349ISBN:0958578346
Description: New. Legendary comics writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell have created a gripping, hallucinatory piece of crime fiction about Jack the Ripper. Detailing the events that led up to the Whitechapel murders and the cover-up that followed, From Hell ha... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Date Published: 2000-02-09
ISBN-13:9780958578349ISBN:0958578346
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780958578349. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780958578349ISBN:0958578346
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"This may have taken V for Vendetta's top spot in my heart as far as graphic novels go. Well...maybe a tie.
I've read quite a bit of JTR lore. This is by far my favorite. We're all familiar, in some way, with his spree, so actually seeing it depicted in pen and ink made it so much more real. Less academic. Campbell does not shy away from his subject matter. I've read Moore's "notes" on illustrations for other GNs, so I know how exacting he can be, but still, Campbell is so incredibly graphic, it gives a new dimension to the term Graphic Novel.
When I read a graphic novel, I examine every page, word, illustration and aspect of the book. I usually read them much, much slower than an actual novel. I found the lettering used pretty distracting. It wasn't very clear. Often I mistook an "A" for a "2". That may not seem like a big deal, but when I was sucked into an intense scene...it was. I had no problem with the black and white, heavy shadowing. It lent itself very well to the subject. Obviously, the lettering wasn't enough to bring down my rating, but I feel it bears mentioning.
I never had the chance to read this as a serial and am very glad. I was completely captivated by the index that followed the actual novel. It was so detailed, and made it perfectly clear that Moore is very aware he has NOT solved the Whitechapel murders. Often, JTR lore writers insist they have. Patricia Cornwell comes to mind, and I find that irritating. It was refreshing for the author to be, not only realistic, but honest, in his appraisal of his own work.
The "Tour de Force" flavor of chapter 2 made me think of Dan Brown's books. I have to wonder if he has read this. It was almost a perfect outline/starting point for any of his books. The map, conspiracy, secrets, clubs, etc. I'm sure some readers found this a tedious chapter, but, again, owing to the compiled issues I read, I found it enlightening, and certainly informative. Maybe more so than I would have had there been a 4-6 week wait for the next chapter.
The last 10 or so pages of chapter 9, where Moore gives one possible explanation of Marie Kelly's female overnight guest, felt more like a look into Moore's life, than Kelly's. Knowing something of Moore's personal situation and household, I felt it was not only written with accuracy, but drawn that way as well. Not being personally familiar with that sexual preference, I felt I had a peek in, with complete anonymity. Moore is very clear in his index that this was all conjecture on his part, but it seems perfectly plausible to me. Considering the ridiculous and dangerous methods of birth control available to those women, relationships with other women, as release, seems almost essential, in hindsight.
The suggestion of dusting for fingerprints in chapter 11 was so amusing. Not only were they unaware of the possibility, but I found it entertaining the way it was dismissed as far-fetched, and as serving only to "further dirty" an already very dirty, muddy crime scene. Oh, if they only knew!
Even while admitting that the entire story is conjecture, Moore explains why Gull would have fit. Yes, the women were increasingly, brutally slaughtered and then butchered, but not one was tortured. Death seemed quick, and relatively painless in each instance. All the mutilation was post-mortem. Gull's fascination with the human body as a divine creation made it seem almost reverant that they were so mutilated. It could be that the killer (Gull, here) was simply fascinated and wanted to see how things worked and fit together. Much like a child taking apart a toy or watch. Simple curiosity that could be satisfied in no other acceptable way. That makes sense to me. Especially because there seemed to be no evidence of sexual assault in any case.
All in all, I found this book informative, shocking, scary and more realistic than many other JTR theories. I'm sure I will read it again, this time reading the index alongside the text. I thought it genius that Moore was so specific and honest with his explanations. He even went so far as to admit to looking for excuses to say "malignant and unfounded things about the Masons." I may not agree with all of Moore's ideas or beliefs, but I will always read them."
"I'm very aware of the implications of criticizing the canon. Bazillions of you have already come through and gushed all over this dark, difficult graphic novel and through the weight of reputation alone, I feel like I should give it at least six or seven stars. I am reminded of a (now ex) girlfriend who told me Aguirre, Wrath of God was "boring" (which it is, but it's still great), or the dude who thought Gremlins was "stupid" (which it is, but it's still great). I guess I found From Hell hard to look at, more than anything else. I understand that the best way to convey darkness in a black and white graphic novel is with huge black splotches, I understand that the rain and gloom of Victorian London lends itself to a certain amount of foggy, rainslashed obscurity. But the book gave me a headache.
It's well written but also pedantic, slow moving and, at every pass, hard to read without wanting aspirin or wanting a drink.
There were passages of focused intent - I remember most specifically the carraige tour of London and the accompanying discussion of the significance of monument and the ahistorical campaign to subjugate the maternal in art and architecture, but there was nothing about its presentation that particularly favored the graphic novel format and I found myself returning to the text over the panel so heavily that it might've been simpler and happier to have encountered that portion in a book.
Great historical subject matter, good writing, long digressions, bad headaches.
The most sincere non-endorsement I can give would go something like this:
This is the book that made me realize I might need glasses, because it made me squint all of the time.
It would also fall into the category of "reputable works that I've completed mostly out of a self-denying desire to be disciplined and not from any sense of enjoyment."
Of the three iconic graphic novels I've read in a continuing experiment to subjectively rescue myself from an adolescent overdevotion to hero comics, this one was by far the worst."
"Moore uses a fictionalized account of Jack the Ripper to examine the doubly-twisted world of a serial killer and the abominable society that created him. To focus too much on the historical theory (taken largely from Stephen Knight's overly-dramatized speculations) would be to miss the point. Moore admits in the appendices that this is fiction, and that we likely cannot know the murderer's actual identity anyway. Rather, he uses this particular character and plot to demonstrate the violence and brutality lurking under the surface of modernity.
This work is unrelentingly dark, morbid, and disturbing. It is painstakingly researched, and the historical details are rendered with an accuracy that applies even to depictions of the murder and mutilation of the five canonical ripper victims. Not for the faint of heart.
Some people don't like the artwork, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Campbell depicts a subtlety of motion between infintesimal moments that really make the scenes vivid and the characters feel alive. I feel I learned something of the art of comics by this example.
It isn't a completely perfect work, hence 4 stars, but I would have given it 4.5."
"This is one of the most impressive projects I've ever read in print. Before reading this tome, be aware that the last 100 or so pages contains a page-by-page (sometime panel-by-panel) explanation of sources and artistic decisions by Moore himself. This kind of work could qualify for a PHD most places.
The story is Jack the Ripper's; more accurately, it's a tale about the murdering of prostitutes in a poor district of London. Moore has fleshed out the story of the prospective victims and potential conspiracies to create a true epic. If you can stomach it, it's not to be missed.
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