Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Eddie Campbell
Published: Originally 1989, this edition is from 2006, by Top Shelf
Genre: Crime noir/horror
Pages: Very many.
From Hell, being a melodrama in sixteen parts, is quite possibly my favourite comic book/graphic novel. Ever. I've read it again and again, about once a year. Sometimes more often. It's a fictional take on the famous and thus far unsolved Jack the Ripper murders in London on the autumn of 1888. And after so many years, it's not likely they will be solved, is it?
From Hell takes the popular theory that the Ripper was the royal doctor, Sir William Gull, and that the murders were ordered by Queen Victoria herself, and runs with it. It's a look into the mind of a serial killer, one convinced that he's not just following orders from his Queen, but also the will of his creator. That by killing these women, he's achieving something. Delivering the twentieth century. Underneath the fictional plot, it's full of history of London, of the whole human race, and the struggle between man and woman. Moore's story drags the reader into its swirls, deeper and deeper into a London long gone, brought to life by Campbell's black and white illustrations every bit as dark as the story. It's hell of a scary one.
Being fictional, From Hell also has a long appendix gathering in detail all the true (or not so true) facts that Moore based his writing on: numerous books and studies and theories on the identity of Jack the Ripper, and what the hell really made him go on a murderous spree. Not much is for sure: even the number of his victims isn't 100% certain. Nevertheless, the first appendix sheds a lot of light to the subject, as does the second one, Dance of the gull catchers, a 24-page comic summing up the search for the killer.
"There never was a Jack the Ripper. Mary Kelly was just an unusually determided suicide. Why don't we leave it there?"
The quote is about as plausible as many of the theories. But until (if ever) the truth comes out, people are going to be wondering about the true identity of the Ripper. And From Hell is a pretty good gateway into the mystery.
From Hell is to blame for starting my own interest in the murders, and into the minds of serial killers. So when I've had the chance to go to London, I've made sure to visit Jack's hunting grounds and even gone on a few organised Jack the Ripper walks. Great fun, especially when the evening is starting to grow dark around you. Above's a picture of a building that's supposedly exactly the same as where the last victim, Mary Kelly, lived and was brutally mutilated in. Apparently, some guides actually claim it's the real one. Annnnnd I could go on and on, but this hasn't really got anything to do with the graphic novel anymore. Well, maybe something fancy about fact and fiction and their relation, myth and truth, but I'm too hung over to make with the fancy words.
Go read From Hell.
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