From Hell

a stunning accomplishment. a radical example of what "comic books"/"graphic novels" can do. i finished it this morning after a night of nightmares - i had just read the panels about the murder of Mary Kelly. How frightening. I could not sleep, I literally shook with fear, kept rising to check the door. It does not matter now to take apart the "correctness" of the theory, of the conspiracy, because like the Manson Family murders of the 60s, Jack the Ripper was the end of an age, a period at the end of an outrageous sentence! and the birth of a century that has seen atrocities that make Jack and his disassembled bodies look quaint. Absolutely astounding, one of the finest books I have ever read.

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So in what I think is a first since opening CCLaP last year, I got a chance recently to not only read a book for the first time but also watch a movie based on it for the first time in the same week; in this case, it was the "Jack The Ripper" conspiracy tale From Hell, with the original 1999 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell and the subsequent 2001 movie version by Allen and Albert Hughes, known professionally as The Hughes Brothers. I thought it'd be fun, then, to take a cue off the Onion AV Club's "Book Versus Film" essay show more series, and write one review encompassing them both; I'm not expecting this to happen very often in my life, though, so don't hold your breath waiting for this to become a regular series.

And indeed, the only reason I took on the original graphic novel in the first place is because I'm a big fan of Moore's, with this for example being the fifth full-length project of his I've now read (after Watchmen, Miracleman, V For Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen); and the reason I'm such a big fan of Moore's is because he is one of the most complex writers in the history of the comics format, penning project after project that not only have the gravitas of a traditional text-based novel but that perfectly exploit why they could only be published as comic books anyway. And in fact From Hell is yet another good example of what I'm talking about; set right before the turn of the 20th century, in the waning years of the Victorian Era, it relies as much on the pacing of the graphic boxes on each page as it does on the plot itself, with Moore deliberately breaking the story at certain points precisely because of knowing that it's where that page will end in the finished book.

Taking place in a grimy, crime-filled East End London, like I said this is Moore's take on the infamous Jack The Ripper legend, the notorious serial killer from the late 1800s who was famously never caught nor even identified; and this being Moore, of course, his take on the whole affair is a complicated and fantastical one, a grand conspiracy involving the royal family, an illegitimate child, the Freemasons, a respected surgeon who doubles as a violent psychopath, brain strokes misinterpreted as religious visions, Medieval Christian churches whose architects snuck pagan references into the plans...oh, and a little time travel to boot, just in case Moore hasn't screwed with your head enough at this point. In fact, the more you read the massive From Hell (which, be warned, is almost 600 pages long), the more you realize that the Ripper story isn't really the main reason Moore even wrote this in the first place; this is more of a dark love letter to the city of London itself, one of the bastions of Western civilization and a place so steeped in history according to Moore that you can almost taste it while there. Like many of his other projects, Moore's main theme here in From Hell is actually the complex and hidden patterns that are layered one by one by society onto history, of how these overlapping patterns both work in tandem and against each other, and how in a place like London it results in a 3,000-year-old matrix of power and magic, full of "hot spots" around the city where literally dozens of important events have all transpired over the centuries.

Ah, but then this delicate web is handed over to The Hughes Brothers (Menace II Society), and things start falling apart alarmingly fast; there's a reason, after all, that this was the movie to make Moore famously declare that he will never again in his life sell the film rights to any of his future projects. Although to be completely fair, the problem is not really with The Hughes Brothers per se (although as directors of the project, they are the ones ultimately accountable for the finished film); no, the real mess starts right off the bat with the muddled, messy script by Terry Hayes and Rafael Yglesias, who surprisingly enough have a number of solid movies in their pasts (including Death and the Maiden, Payback, and Mad Max: Road Warrior), so you would think would know better. For example, the character Johnny Depp plays in the movie version is in actuality an amalgam of three different characters from the original book -- a policeman, a psychic, and a crazed opium addict -- not to mention that in the book, these three characters are supposed to not like each other, with personalities that naturally clash against the other two. Then add the fact that in the book, the psychic is actually fake, and admits so right on page 2 of the manuscript; in the movie, however, Depp's psychic visions are supposed to be real, brought on by the massive amounts of opium he is constantly smoking in seedy Chinatown dens, yet with all of this being suspiciously tolerated by his bosses at Scotland Yard.

It essentially turns the film version of From Hell into a schizophrenic disaster, a movie that can't decide if it's a fact-based police procedural, a horror movie with supernatural elements, or the Hollywood version of a historical thriller (i.e. the Victorian prostitutes are way too hot to be actual Victorian prostitutes). Say what you will about Alan Moore's writing style (which I admit can get awfully overblown at points, especially when he was younger), but at least he is a master at putting together a sharply focused yet wildly digressive story, and smart enough to understand how two such seemingly competitive elements can actually complement each other when done in the right way. It's a lesson that completely eluded the group of people responsible for the movie version; and that's why the book version of From Hell is ultimately so brilliant, and why the film version is ultimately so terrible.

Out of 10:
Book: 9.0
Movie: 4.5 show less

Some time back I watched the movie based upon this graphic novel. It left me confused and disappointed (I could go on about unfortunate casting choices but I won’t). Since then I’ve wanted to read the graphic novel to get my footing back. Through maybe the first quarter of FROM HELL I was still confused and disappointed but then things clicked. I sunk into the atmosphere, felt a part of 1880’s London and was moved by the rhythms of poverty and power grappling in darkness. The dingy but distinct art work adds to the feel for old timey, grimy London. I have read complaints that the characters are difficult to tell apart. I did have some issues but for the most part enough clues were given to keep things straight (this can be an show more issue for any graphic novel not dealing with superheroes). This may have been designed to add to the anonymity of the poor as the more well off characters are much easier to distinguish. The artist Eddie Campbell also had to deal with period detail and an extensive dive into 1880’s London architecture and geography—his work highlighting a fantastic insanity laced jaunt around night time London touring the touchstones of Masonic power. In fact, this sequence is when I felt totally locked into the book. I tapped into Dr. Gull’s madness and the inevitability of it’s expression. At 3 or 4 lbs and over 500 pages it is an immersion. Moore masterfully unfolds this complicated tale of madness. There is no rush in the story, unfolding naturally, in rich mostly historical detail. The infamous murders at the heart of this story don’t come close to overshadowing the rest—and there is no rush to them or from them. Following the graphic novel there is 43 oversized addendum pages detailing where most every thoroughly researched detail in the graphic novel came from. This is so well done it’s like watching a making of documentary after a film. Moore tells you what is fact, what is interpretation and what is created to flesh out a readable tale. Fascinating. Then that is followed by a spirited gathering in graphic form of Moore and the authors of his resource materials battling the demons that arose from handling the subject matter. All marvelous stuff and a great way to wrap this story up. show less

In From Hell, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell tell a novel about the Whitechapel Murders, focusing on the identity and motives of Jack the Ripper. Moore and Campbell draw upon the theory Joseph “Hobo” Sickert, the alleged illegitimate son of artist William Sickert, conveyed to Stephen Knight including a conspiracy involving Queen Victoria and various other senior members of the British government, all Freemasons, to enlist Sir William Gull, one of the Physicians-in-Ordinary to Victoria, in murdering women who had knowledge of an illegitimate heir to the throne fathered by Prince Albert Victor. Most historians and experts have since rejected Knight’s story, with even Joseph Sickert recanting in the Sunday Times in June 1978.

Moore and show more Campbell use Gull and Freemasonry to engage with metaphysical ideas, adding a touch of fantasy that blends with the realistic horror and changing times to imbue the story with an atmosphere more intense than mere murder mystery. In 1887, Gull suffered the first of a series of strokes. Drawing on the mysticism associated with Freemasonry in popular culture, Moore and Campbell portray this as Gull seeing the true face of god and seeking to achieve greater wisdom through blood rituals. When tasked to eliminate women with knowledge of Prince Albert Victor’s secret marriage and child, he draws upon concepts of London’s sacred geometry to use his murders for this knowledge.

In the midst of killing Mary Jane Kelly, Gull has a vision of a twentieth-century office. Looking about him at the changing fashions and how people interact, he pontificates, “It would seem we are to suffer an apocalypse of cockatoos… morose, barbaric children playing joylessly with their unfathomable toys. Where comes this dullness in your eyes? How has your century numbed you so? Shall man be given marvels only when he is beyond all wonder? Your days were born in blood and fires whereof in you I may not see the meanest spark! Your past is pain and iron! Know yourselves! With all your shimmering numbers and your lights, think not to be inured to history. Its black root succours you. It is INSIDE you. Are you asleep to it, that cannot feel its breath upon your neck, nor see what soaks its cuffs?” (chapter 10, pg. 21, punctuation in the original). His judgment reflects his previous discussion of the importance of blood and ritual. Having glimpsed the future, he stats, “It is beginning, Netley. Only just beginning. For better or worse, the twentieth century. I have delivered it” (chapter 10, pg. 33).

Tying into ideas about metaphysics and fourth dimensionality, the Ripper’s crimes and spirit influence Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (chapter 14, pg. 15), William Blake’s painting, The Ghost of a Flea (chapter 14, pg. 16), and inspires Peter Sutcliffe and Ian Brady (chapter 14, pg. 14). Further, Gull witnesses the London Monster, who attacked women between 1788 – 1790 and who several characters referenced earlier in the book. In this, Moore further develops themes about the nature of time that he first explored in Watchmen. Unlike Watchmen, however, where Doctor Manhattan actually can exist across time, Moore maintains an air of ambiguity and artistic license, where Gull’s visions may simply be the result of the strokes he continued to have following his first in 1887.

In his second appendix, Alan Moore describes his approach to writing a story about Jack the Ripper and how he embraced ambiguity and did not set out to tell an authoritative story, but rather to elucidate its deeper meaning. He writes, “By autumn 1988 I’m thinking seriously about writing something lengthy on a murder. The Whitechapel Killings aren’t even considered. Too played-out. Too obvious. Publicity around the crimes’ centennial, however, leads me to Knight’s book. Ideas coalesce. Deciding on a serial in Steve Bissette’s Taboo, I contact Eddie Campbell. The rest is dodgy, pseudo-history. Slowly it dawns on me that despite the Gull theory’s obvious attractions, the idea of a solution, any solution, is inane. Murder isn’t like books. Murder, a human event located in both space and time, has an imaginary field completely unrestrained by either. It holds meaning, and shape, but no solution” (Appendix II, pg. 16). The collected volume’s first appendix includes significant notes, demonstrating Moore and Campbell’s efforts to faithfully recreate the world of London in the late nineteenth century while also disclosing which elements Moore invented for the sake of a good story.

The graphic novel later inspired a film of the same name in 2001. While the film maintains several of the elements surrounding William Gull, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Inspector Frederick Abberline radically departs from the source material to the point of essentially being an original character created for the film. Also, unlike the film which is more of a mystery, the graphic novel is clear about Gull’s involvement from the start and uses it to tell and far grander story than a comparatively simple conspiracy. show less

Vaya vaya movidote. A Alan Moore, como es de todos bien sabido, le gustan las cosas siniestras y misteriosas, y From Hell es lo más siniestro y misterioso que ha escrito, seguramente. Es una abstrusa crónica de los asesinatos de Jack el Destripador, que asigna una identidad de entre todas las posibles al asesino con una documentación intensa, y que viene acompañada de unos dibujos bastante grotescos en blanco y negro cortesía de Eddie Campbell. No es exactamente una lectura ligera.

A priori la historia es bastante simple: un doctor al servicio de la Corona Inglesa asesinó a cinco prostitutas para encubrir que un duque había tenido un hijo con una plebeya. Pero estos crímenes se van de las manos porque el doctor al que se show more encomienda el trabajo es un masón que lleva su tarea al campo de batalla entre la magia y la razón, la mujer y el hombre. Así, a grandes rasgos.

Hay tropocientos personajes más o menos indistinguibles, y sin una buena guía es complicado de seguir pese a la aparente simplicidad de la trama, ya que la sociedad entera del siglo XIX se ve representada. Londres es un personaje más aquí, y un capítulo entero se dedica a los significados ocultos de los edificios de la capital británica, una historia más antigua que el hombre mismo.

Moore deja claro que, aunque el trabajo de investigación ha sido importante, el crimen no está resuelto ni lo estará nunca, y que Jack forma ya parte de los mismos mitos que el doctor Gull recordaba en sus visiones. Es un cómic que cuesta, pero que da lo que promete, siempre y cuando se tenga un estómago resistente y una mentalidad propicia a ver cosas horrorosas. show less

Mary Kelly was just an unusually determined suicide. Why don't we leave it there?

Well, that was that. From Hell is overflowing with sublime images, there is also a strident lyricism to the prose, My appreciation for both was hampered by my bullshit alarm ringing incessantly. There's this London school of the subversive, to which Moore belongs: Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd are also practicing partners. They parse and weave, finding anecdote and parallel in the accrued centuries of history along the banks of the Fleet and the Thames. The ancient grit and whispered airs both haunt and charge, maintaining spectral currents which cross the city. Everything from the Druids to Oscar Wilde to the Final Solution is duly linked. It does tax show more and test, but the assemblage is admirable, the loud warnings of a bus stop prophet. So much is recycled and applied elsewhere -- an conservation of totems, a self organizing oracle down pissy alleys amid take-away menus and lottery tickets -- therein lies the true eschatological -- away from the louche plastic of muggle money. Away.

I have seen the film adaptation a number of times, so the arc was familiar. The detail revealed within the text was at times spellbinding, the sepia charm of gaslight and decomposition. show less

This rather hefty book is more a novel than standard graphic novel or comic for that matter. Illustrations here are exactly that - illustrations. You do not get anything more out of them (considering the very sketch-like nature and in some situations complete inability to clearly see what is going on, e.g. scenes where police finds the bodies in dark and unlit streets).

But story, it is very good.

If you are expecting whodunit story you will be disappointed. Perpetrator is know very early. This is story of deep anxiety caused by the turn of the century (in all aspects not unlike anxiety haunting people for the last 20 years) and slow travel to madness triggered by what some people speculate might be reason for actual Jack the Ripper's show more rampage.

As such this is true horror story, interspersed with occult and secret societies, showing influence occult societies had even on mighty empire as UK (although should we say had in the first place? I have a feeling situation did not change at all in my opinion, people (especially powerful ones) seem to have fetishes about belonging to secret societies). Police officers frustration when encountering political obstacles while they truly work on finding the murderer is presented very clearly. And actions of what you might call "secret government" are shown as they usually are - utterly merciless when national interests are in jeopardy.

I don't understand people with critiques in terms of racial/religious context - these were late 1800's, early 1900's and unfortunately that was the thinking of people at the time (especially in terms of medicine and treatments of psychological issues). Hopefully we raised above it but to disregard past because of the way people were thinking at the time is very silly thing to do (should we eliminate integral calculus because at the time wars (almost all initially highly religious) ravaged the Europe?). All the past is base for future - without it there would be no future. We need to accept the past and rise above the bad things and improve.

Tirade aside this is very introspective and disturbing novel, journey into the very center of madness.
Beside the main story please read all the appendixes and especially short graphic story "Gull Catchers".

Excellent story, recommended to all thriller fans. show less