graphic novels

As the old song goes, "Alan Moore knows the score".

If you've seen the movie, forget the psychic detective, forget the whodunnit story. If you wondered where the film's brains were -- well, they were left on the comics page.

The black-and-white graphic novel is an exploration of Jack the Ripper -- his crimes, conspiracy theories, the police investigation and a lot of insight into the mind of the Ripper (whose identity is not kept secret). This book goes off into so many wonderful tangents about philosophy, history, little period details, all kinds of stuff that you couldn't fit into a movie's length. Yet it keeps very human characters.

Alan Moore's writing is superb as ever. Eddie Campbell's art is a bit stratchy but perfectly sets the mood.

The book also contains an length collection of Endnotes that will show where Moore's getting this stuff from and suggestions for further reading. And there's the history of Ripper studies in comic book form too.

Not for the faint of heart ("Jack" murdered and maimed viciously) or those with a short attention span (lots of artsy and intellectual stuff here, not a slam-bang actioner). But for those who want smart, well-written, well-drawn, insanely well-researched comics, this is the collection to buy.

What can i say about this graphic novel? Even though i have not many experience with Moore, after reading only Watchmen, i decided to buy all his next works. and From Hell was my next.

He recreates Victorian era in all its perfection, to every inch of detail, everything researched. In the end, it's a reconstituiton of 1888's London, from the West End to Whitechapel, where great part of the action takes place. After all, this is a book on Jack the Ripper, and Moore's theory is just brilliant.

Taken from Knight's novel, The Final Solution, Moore creates the tale around William Gull, Her Majesty's doctor, and how he had to avoid the scandal of a royal baby.

The story is long, thankfully, and involves so many historical figgures such as Oscar Wilde, the Elephant Man and even a young Aleister Crowley. There is also the Masons, conspiracies, detective work, and a plausible explanation to why the Ripper was never caught.

The art, in black and white, is superb, grim and gritty. The way the killing are done is excellent, though i don't find it that scaring.

Finally, after the main story, there is an appendix about every chapter, explaining each page. Perfect for anyone researching abouth the Ripper murders.

All in All, an interesting reading.

In light of the applause given to this particular author, the Freemason research - "a couple of Ph.d's worth" - was done by Stephen Knight in his 1988 book on the Whitechapel Murders. Knight died subsequent to proving the Freemasonic nature of the murders - and why there were only five of them. The book is now out of print (not surprisingly) but nevertheless, it is Stephen Knight to whom credit should go, for proving the freemasonic ties.