Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell - From Hell: Being a Melodrama in Sixteen Parts

Pros: Every single thing, it's an Alan Moore graphic novel and it's perfect.
Cons: NOT for kids. At all. Not even close.

Undeniably the most famous serial killer case in history would have to be the murders in Whitechapel in the autumn of 1888, 5 murders attributed to a killer known only as Jack the Ripper. While theories abound and almost every horror writer to pick up a ...

Pros: Very extensive and well written, nice art; good for pressing flowers
Cons: Story structure (details in review)

While few of you may know this, Sacramento, California (my hometown) has been home to a disproportionately large number of serial murderers and spree killings. From "The Sacramento Vampire Killer" to Dorothea Puente to the Unabomber, the criminally...

Pros: Great story, great art
Cons: None

Jack the Ripper has evolved from a serial murderer in the Whitechapel section in London in 1888 to a media creation during and following the murders to a figure of nearly mythological significance in modern times. One of the characteristics of the...

Pros: Tremendous writing, excellent illustrating
Cons: None

My first encounter with From Hell came during my junior year of college. My friend and neighbor Kevin was in the midst of reading it. One day when I stopped by his place, one volume of it was on his kitchen table. Despite the gothic cover, I...

Pros: Great plot, a solid research and a fascinating atmosphere
Cons: Thick read at first but the fog clears eventually. Strong sexual and gory content.

Alan Moore is without any doubt one of the most fascinating authors of these last years. His writing always lies on such a solid background of research and reference that most of his work gets better on second read. The fact that he communicates his art...

Pros: Stylish, fascinating, horrible, a great read.
Cons: While atmospheric, art occasionally leads to problem in following narrative

I'm a fan of Alan Moore ever since the days of Watchman, and eventually got around to buying "From Hell". It's a fictionalised account of the tale of Jack the Ripper, the murderer of several prostitutes in Victorian London, who was never captured....

Pros: Excellent storytelling, intellectually engaging, viscerally horrific, marvelously detailed.
Cons: Artwork sure isn't pretty.

Usually I must suppress a snort of skepticism whenever I hear the term "graphic novel"; look, I don't care whether it's 1,000 pages long in hardcover with great leathern straps. If it's about Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman or someone else in tights,...

Pros: Great story / Great art
Cons: none

"From Hell" is a fictional account of the Jack the ripper story, but it is based in a great deal of research and fact. Alan Moore has attempted with this novel to create a plausible solution to the Ripper mystery. He tells an exciting...

Pros: Incredible research and depth.
Cons: Highly Addicitive

From Hell rendered me useless for the better part of a day, mainly because I couldn't put it down once I started reading. Alan Moore isn't content with a simple narrative about Jack the Ripper. Instead, he combines extensively researched Ripper lore, occult symbolism, and his own speculations and imaginings to create a complex, multi-layered story. Everything falls into place so perfectly that in many cases the only way to tell the truths from the fictions is to check the annotations. The annotations are very well done and incredibly helpful, especially for those of us who don't happen to be experts on the Ripper murders, Victorian history, the occult, London geography, ancient history, AND Freemasonry. Eddie Campbell's artwork takes some getting used to, but as you read From Hell it becomes harder and harder to imagine anyone else doing the illustrations--his style works perfectly with Moore's script. From Hell is probably the best Alan Moore comic I've read, which is quite an achievement when you consider Moore's body of work.