Leah Moore

The art in this series is perfect for the period. Everything is done in shades of brown, the only blacks are the inking. When there is a real colour, a vivid red for blood or a magical green glow it stands out and wants to be noticed. When we think of historical pieces, films or big budget TV shows or even portraits from the period, we are shown only the rich and powerful, those who could afford expensive cloth and more importantly, expensive dyes. Until the age in which we live, brown has show more to be the most common colour the human eye has ever seen. Dirt is brown, bare cloth is brown, wood is brown and all of that is captured in the art of this comic. Even the fancy writing that makes up the title page of the comic is a brown/gold wooden effect.

This comic does a ‘cold’ opening very well. I expect they feel they can do this because Sherlock Holmes is such a well known name that most people will not need a slow introduction. I have to admit this is slightly misleading as there are a couple of pages of text backstory before hand, but even still the action is in full flow by page 4. Mr Holmes does not disappoint as he collars his man, and his supposed female accomplice within the first six pages. I was disappointed early on by the lack of Mr. Holmes deductive skills, he seemed to be taken unaware, but later in the first issue he fills two full pages with his ‘showing off’ and it was thoroughly entertaining.

It is very much in the vein of the Hound of the Baskervilles as this comic centres around a semi-mythic creature, Spring Heeled Jack, a creature said to jump from the roofs in Victorian England and attack its prey on the ground with vicious claws. I do not feel I am giving too much away to say that the supernatural explanation is not the one which Holmes favours. His investigations lead him from Inspector to Vicar, museum to morgue and the bodies keep piling up, slashed to the bone across their backs.

I have read through so awful dross purely because I liked the art, and yet I cannot stomach what is supposedly the best of the current Marvel titles because I utterly hate the artwork. This story is full of the trappings of a true Sherlock Holmes novel in that it is full of coincidences and of examples of Holmes retrospective brilliance, where he returns to a crime scene only to ‘claim’ that something he had apparently missed had been done so intentionally to throw others off the trail. I have not read all the Sherlock Holmes novels and if the foreword had not told me this was an original story, I would have thought it had flowed from Conan Doyle’s pen; I cannot think of higher praise for a book like this. show less

What a simply perfect graphic novel adaptation! Yes friends, this is an actual adaptation that sticks to the classic that we all know and love. No retelling, no reimagining, just adding gorgeous illustrations to an already wonderful and whimsical story. I can't tell you how giddy I was upon realizing that Alice's adventures would be intact. There's something so satisfying about seeing things that were only in your imagination, brought to life by people who understand how important they are.
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Leah Moore's artwork is a little less colorful than I originally expected, but the more I read the more I realized how well it fit the story. The muted colors lend themselves well to the dreamlike quality of Alice's rather strange encounters. I must admit, Alice herself really steals the show in terms of character illustration. She's utterly adorable, which makes her that much easier to follow along with. She is set against characters with mad grins, warped faces, and slightly terrifying bodies. That beautiful contrast between her world, and the one she has found at the bottom of the rabbit hole, is perfection.



I do believe that this would be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who has a soft spot for Alice in Wonderland. Journeying along with her, reliving the magic of Wonderland, it's all made that much more satisfying by the addition of these gorgeous panels. I just goes to show, in the right hands a graphic novel adaptation can be brilliant. I'm just glad Leah Moore understood that. show less

A demon beast terrorizes 19th century Liverpool in this exciting graphic novel from Leah Moore and John Reppion. Holmes is in Liverpool winding down another case when he is hurled into the demonic mystery of this previously untold tale! Winged monsters, deadly street gangs and greedy speculators people the world of Victorian Liverpool and the ghastly, mysterious murders that Holmes and Watson must solve, whether they have the cooperation of the local constabulary or not! This is a great read show more and a worthy addition to the Holmes canon. show less

An excellent graphic novel, each chapter bearing the title of each track on the Doors album of the same name. Leah Moore quotes much of the lyrics, and anyone who is familiar to the music will find this fills their mind with the music. The attempts at capturing Jim Morrison's features are well done, particularly his body language. The stories are informative - I particularly enjoyed Peace Frog being linked to civilians taking charge of replanting a community park, and the authoritarian show more reaction by the police; also Ship of Fools being linked to Plato's Republic, and with the current affairs of 1969 - the moon landing, and the human pollution of earth. show less