The pinnacle of comic book creativity (From Hell - Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell)

Member Name: hogsflesh

Product:	From Hell - Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell
Date:	20/04/01 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A serious work of art

Disadvantages: Not for the squeamish

Ten years in the making, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel From Hell is by far and away the best comic that I've ever read. It makes an utterly convincing case for comics to be regarded as a "proper" art form in their own right. It is immensely rich in terms of language and ideas, and the artwork is more than a match for the writing. It's a dense and often challenging graphic novel, but it really repays the effort it takes to read.

Just one point: I'm not aware of this ever having been published by Knockabout. The currently available version is published by Eddie Campbell comics, and before that it was serialised by Kitchen Sink. I could be wrong, though.

It's basically the story of Jack the Ripper, or rather a possible version of Jack the Ripper. The theory that the graphic novel uses (Royal connections, deranged freemasons, massive conspiracy) isn't new by any means, and has of course been convincingly discredited by Ripperologists. In fact, if you're going to get angry that Moore and Campbell tell a story that isn't true (and some people do), then you'd probably better avoid this. It should be pointed out, though, that although the graphic novel tries to be as accurate as possible in its details (and includes extensive notes in the back, giving sources for everything), it is still presented as a work of fiction. Moore even admits that his suspect probably wasn't the Ripper. This really shouldn't get in the way of your appreciation of From Hell.

One feature that even the most puritanical of Ripperlogists should appreciate is that the appearance of all the characters is fairly true to life, except in the few cases where no photograph was available. It's also fairly scrupulous about getting the dates and names right, although it does wheel out a few well-worn myths about the crimes that are untrue.

The story is immense, containing a large number of sub-plots, but for the most part it focuses on the life and activities of the murderer and the attempts of the police to catch him. Royal surgeon Sir William Gull is the killer (I'm giving nothing away by revealing this - it's obvious from the very start. This isn't an Agatha Christie style detective story), and he is probably the best written character I've seen in a comic. Clearly insane (and Moore drops subtle hints about possible causes of his insanity without ever forcing them upon us), but always sounding completely rational, able to justify everything he does to his own satisfaction, smug and occasionally rude, he is an incredible creation. At no point does the reader feel sympathy or affection for him, but he is a million miles away from the over-the-top serial killer type so popular in films and novels.

Moore takes risks with the character, allowing him an interest in mysticism that, as far as I can tell, has no basis in historical fact. Moore was heavily influenced by the work of novelist/poet Iain Sinclair in writing From Hell, so there's a lot of psycho-geography and references to Hawksmoor churches and William Blake. Rather than cluttering things up, these references become very much a part of the story, as they provide Gull with the motivation he needs. So well written are the characters that Gull's mystical leanings are never less than convincing. Alan Moore is apparently a practising magician, so the fact that he treats this subject with great seriousness isn't surprising.

The police are led by Fred Abberline, another superb character portrait. He's the ordinary man who gets sucked into something he doesn't understand, and which comes to dominate his life, often in ways he doesn't even understand. Resolutely down to earth, his attempts to figure out what could possibly motivate the murderer are especially affecting since we, the readers, are allowed to simultaneously witness Gull's progress, so we always know just how far from the truth the police are. Also poignant is the way the ageing, embittered Abberline is shown in the prologue and epilogue: full of self-loathing and fear of death.

It would be a simplification to say that the graphic novel is just about Gull and Abberline, though. Every major character is very well written. The murder victims are all treated with respect - they all have well-rounded characters, unlike the way they're normally presented in films. Knowing what lies in store for them (if you have the requisite knowledge of the case) means that you try not to become attached to any of them, but it becomes impossible, especially with the last victim.

The artwork is superb. Campbell uses black and white drawings throughout. The level of detail in the art is extraordinary, down to what I assume are accurate advertisements on buses and labels on sweet jars. It would be interesting to know how much of the background detail is as specified by Moore and how much was improvised by Campbell (an accomplished comic book writer in his own right). The art is unflinchingly explicit, featuring sex scenes that I'm actually surprised to see available in this country, and horrifying violence in the murder scenes. Don't read this if you're offended by such things.

There's an enormous amount to admire in this work. Even the "celebrity cameos" don't seem too out of place (Oscar Wilde, WB Yeats, the Elephant Man and even a ten-year-old Aleister Crowley put in appearances). There's some interesting material about the nature of time, and the idea that Jack the Ripper hastens in the Twentieth Century (he's effectively a modern phenomenon in period costume). There's even a twist ending, of a kind.

It's not terribly light-hearted. In fact it's about as grim as you can imagine, with the odd isolated moments of humour serving only to emphasise how dark the rest of the work is. At the end of the novel, as part of the appendix, is Dance of the Gull Catchers, a comic strip version of the history of Ripperology. Some good, serious points are made in it, but it's also very funny, so helps to break the dark mood of the main work.

I've read From Hell four times now, and I'm still finding new things to admire in it. Strongly recommended to any intelligent fan of comics, and also to anyone who thinks that comics can never raise themselves above their childish roots.

Summary: Still the best comic series I've read