More Moore: From Hell
This Oct. 19, 2001 will serve as this week’s “Retro Thursday” piece. This article was published tying in with the release of the “From Hell” movie.
Also, with “Watchmen” nearing, I wanted to do a series pointing out additional works by Alan Moore that those who liked the “Watchmen” graphic novel can seek out. Thus, “More Moore.” My first suggestion is the unsettling classic, “From Hell.”
—-
“It is beginning, Netley. Only just beginning. For better or worse, the twentieth century. I have delivered it.”
That quote, from the character revealed as Jack the Ripper, drives the central premise of “From Hell,” the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Moore postulates through his fictionalized narrative that the Ripper killings of 1888 launched the world forward, and not necessarily for the better. Jack the Ripper, the world’s most famous serial killer, is revealed as a man seeking mystical power, while at the same time trying to silence a secret that could shake England.
“From Hell,” which takes its title from a letter received claiming credit for the Ripper murders, is the basis of the film starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham.
The 500-plus page graphic novel, containing more than 60 pages of notes by Moore and Campbell, is published by Eddie Campbell Comics and represented in the United States by Top Shelf.
Moore’s Jack the Ripper tale is less a whodunit than a whydunit – the Ripper in the “From Hell” graphic novel is revealed fairly early on. By so doing, “From Hell” is able to move beyond a simple examination of the facts and go further, into an exploration of conspiracy, blackmail, murder and magic.
Inspector Frederick Abberline is the hero of the graphic novel, the police inspector charged with finding Bloody Jack. Also appearing are Robert Lees, the queen’s psychic; Sir William Gull, the Queen’s physician; and the victims of the Ripper, most prominently Mary Kelly.
Moore, the author of the acclaimed comic-book works “Watchmen,” and “V for Vendetta,” among others, is at his peak as a mature storyteller with “From Hell,” which is among the most ambitious, cogent and impressive works ever attempted in the graphic novel format.
Campbell’s art is different from the norm in graphic novels. His scratchy impressionism is perhaps more difficult to take to on first blush, but as the book continues, and the reader grows acclimated to the style, Campbell’s art pulls the reader further and deeper into the Victorian nightmare.
Campbell, the creator of “Alec” and “Bacchus,” is also an acclaimed writer, and the perfect choice to meticulously translate Moore’s opus into graphic form.
Moore and Campbell began work on “From Hell” in the late 1980s. A decade and multiple publishers later, “From Hell” was collected into an impressive $35 package.
Digesting the whole of “From Hell” leaves a sense of unease; it is horror in the truest sense. That unease was not lost on the author, whose close analysis of the killings left him feeling an uncomfortable tie to his subject.
“For my part I am concerned with cutting into and examining the still-warm corpse of history itself,” Moore said in his notes. “In some of my chilliest moments, I suspect that this was his foremost pre-occupation also, albeit in pursuit of different ends.”
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment