I just indexed Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's Jack the Ripper opus, From Hell. This necessitated re-reading it and that reminded me of how absolutely wonderful it is.
Worthy of the name "novel," it is so rich and intricate as to almost defy description as a comic book. Most who are at all familiar with his work will accept that Moore is a brilliant writer but the depth of research and the...vividness of his characterizations here is simply stupendous. The mental illness of Dr. William Gull, royal physician, Moore's candidate for the role of Jack the Ripper, is, while monstrous, at the same time almost delicate. Gull is never a slavering lunatic, but always, even in his brutalization of his victims, a man of deep belief in the powers of mystic philosophy. It may seem silly to call Jack the Ripper a man capable of great subtlety, but Gull's dialog requires multiple readings for a full grasp of the complex portrait Moore crafts of the man whom he credits with bringing about the 20th century.
And Eddie Campbell. Sigh. Campbell is one of my personal favorite cartoonists. His work here is just as deeply researched as Moore's and his evocation of the poverty and squalor of Victorian slums is perfect. There is never a mis-step. The personality of Inspector Fred Abberline, the lead investigator, comes through in his body language as though Campbell had drawn him from life. I own a page of original art from the sequence of the police drowning of Montague Druitt and I treasure it.
I understand that there is a new Top Shelf edition of this remarkable work
. Obviously, I highly recommend it. No, that's not right -- I practically demand that you get it and. Get it and read it regardless of your interest in Jack the Ripper. And if you have an interest in the Ripper murders, read it as a compendium of facts (you don't have to believe that Gull was the Ripper). Get it and read it if you have the slightest interest in comics as important medium. Or as sublime entertainment.
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