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
"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.
"I remember reading this Victorian gothic horror back in early 2005, during a rather dark period of uncertainty, creeping malaise and vicious self-doubt; needless to say, it was a perfect book for the moment. Now that I'm revisiting my Alan Moore collection along with countless thousands of fellow comics freaks, this volume deserves a flip-through and no small amount of nostalgia (n.b. the Watchmen movie comes out this week, March 6th). The title is taken from the famous "From Hell" letter in 1888 by Jack the Ripper to Inspector Lusk, probably the only real missive from the actual murderer. Read the letter on Wikipedia - it is a chilling piece of work.
Moore takes us on a macabre tour of Victorian London through the eyes of its seedier inhabitants. He also works in his traditional eclectic references to sundry topics; in this case the mysteries of the occult at the turn of that century, societal attitudes in England, and even post-impressionist reimaginings of the prostitute's role in society. Interestingly enough, Moore wrote that, "the Ripper murders - happening when they did and where they did - were almost like an apocalyptic summary of ... that entire Victorian age. Also, they prefigure a lot of the horrors of the 20th century." He views and reviews the Ripper killings as a function of the society that he lived in, imagined as if the Devil himself entered the world to bring his horrors to humanity. It is simply beyond our understanding.
However, there is a very real human source of the killings, which is better to read about yourself than have spoiled in this review. Moore's take on the real Ripper is quite interesting, and it brings together his various imaginings about the occult and Victorian high society. Yes, hookers are involved.
The art is stark, violent, and in black and white. There is no color to this world but it is atmospheric nonetheless. The panels are narrow, confining and claustrophobic, much like the alleyways of London in which Jack killed his whores. It is a dark world filled with dread and shadows, illuminated only by gaslight. Moore inhabits it thoroughly and brings us in for the ride.
'From Hell' is a long read, so settle in and don't quit - the payoff is definitely worth it!"
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