The Bottom Line: The oft-told and retold tale of Jack the Ripper comes to life (and death) again in a bold, realistic yet phantasmagorical graphic-novel approach.
Cassady's Full Review: Alan Moore et al - From Hell: Being a Melodrama in...
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, it's a comic book for juveniles, sorry. But not "From Hell." This one's a graphic novel in the finest sense, as thick, detailed, grown-up and densely-literate a speculative retelling of the Jack the Ripper story one can imagine. The panels, laid out simply in a usually-unvarying grid pattern, bear witness to acts of gruesome mayhem committed by a deranged Royal Physician to Queen Victoria, on an occult-tainted mission to cover up a blackmail plot against a wastrel prince, hatched among several Whitechapel prostitutes. I had heard this theory debated (and debunked) by Ripperologists before, but the Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell swept me up in its morbid embrace and had me convinced. And in and out of the action synchronistically thread such intriguing peripheral characters as Oscar Wilde, William Blake, Adolph Hitler's parents and the Elephant Man. Plus 42 pages of notes and annotations as to the historical reality of what the writing team has portrayed, although a further postcript reflects satirically on the impossibility of definitively proving anything, Ripper-wise. So, whether it's epic crime fiction, a recreation of Victorian-era mindsets, or sheer horror, this one's a ripping yarn, all right. My only complaint is that some of the characters in the ebon-black illustrations look too much alike, especially the Ripper's victims. But that's a minor quibble.
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