From hell

Food for thought for sure, From Hell is a complex piece of work with many layers of human emotions, expressions, and delusions.

One thing I particularly like about Alan Moore is his all-pervading kindness to everyone he presents in his works, both villains and heroes, victims and criminals.

So, we see Sir William Gull— a genius, a murderer, deranged to many but sure of his superiority only found his true nature of derangement and inferiority in his visit to a higher plain.

There are some memorable panels and monologues that will keep me thinking for quite a while.



Although Moore used Hinton's fourth dimension as a central concept of this work, he— probably with his modern sense of four-dimensional space understood the fourth dimension as time, whereas Hinton's was an Euclidean one. However, he bridged that with modern spacetime and created such panels like the above.

A masterpiece!

That was a really tough read, but something's gonna be exceedingly good to continue reading it while nausea keeps rising. The subject matter is tough, the scribbly yet graphic art does not make it easier, the language is harsh, and my book has a very strong toner smell which made the read even harder. It is truly a plunge into hell. First time i read a graphic novel that truly feels like a heavy literary novel.

I was also very impressed by the extent of the research, every detail and choice is explained thoroughly in the appendix, with a second appendix following the fictionalized retellings of Jack the Ripper and how the mythology kept growing.

I will not enter into analysis of how accurate 1888 Britain was depicted and if it's all exaggerated, (media always shows the poor to have lost their humanity which is more of an exception than a rule in reality, but lots of books have been written about the misery of Victorian Britain so i don't know)
but i do know western media has been feeding on that fascination with crime since and it's not “human” as Moore has said in his second appendix, but definitely an important part of modern western culture.

A friend bought me this to convert me into a graphic novels guy. I enjoyed it well enough, but I wouldn't say I'm all in. I shall not, however, close my mind to trying another one.

I like the way this meanders around its subject and ponders things like “why do people write hoax letters pretending that they are serial killers” ... I wouldn't read it ahead of Miracleman or Watchmen as far as the other Moore works I've read, but I was intrigued when I heard the Chapo interview where he discussed the church at Spitalfields.

Je n'aime pas abandonner une lecture, surtout quand il s'agit d'une œuvre acclamée par la critique (des professionnels et des lectures). Mais je me suis profondément ennuyé pendant le premiers tiers de cette bande dessinée que j'ai péniblement lu depuis hier. Alan Moore et Eddie Campbell proposent leur vision des crimes de Jack l'Eventreur et de l'Angleterre victorienne, mais je n'y ai pas été sensible. Dommage ...

“Truth is, this has never been about the murders, not the killer nor his victims. It's about us. About our minds and how they dance.”

I've always been fascinated by Jack the Ripper and all the mystery surrounding him and what happened. Who was he really? We'll never know. But it's always fascinating to see the many ways in which people try to explain this story. This graphic novel tells one of those potential stories, in thorough and compelling detail. I loved Alan Moore's take on Jack the Ripper and Eddie Campbell's art could not have been more perfect for the story. It was very dark and very gory and very much what one would expect to see in a close-up look at London in 1888 at the height of these murders. It is so interesting to me how much these murders have significantly impacted our culture since then and how far we've twisted these events to make them into so much more. Moore was right, it's nor about the murders, killer, or his victims. It's about how we see them and consume them and turn them into endless hysteria and obsession with events that happened over 100 years ago. As crazy as some of this book was; despite the entire chapter devoted to depicting the murder of Marie Kelly, I found it compelling and a fascinating look at how many different ways there are to tell this story that has become an integral part of our culture.

Interesting, complex and probably a great literary achievement, but unfortunately let down by the artwork which makes some scenes difficult to understand, particularly in recognising characters.