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A review by cobhlaith
From Hell by Alan Moore
5.0
loved excitedly pointing, "Hey, I know that nineteenth century socialite!!"
I'm tired of the air of implied importance that comes along with reading a comic by Alan Moore, but I guess he's owed his due or whatever lol. A while ago I tried a read-through of all his comics, and after reading through the bulk of his 80s work I came out the other end loathing the conversations that won't stop happening about him. What ELSE do you expect after choking down some of the most misogynistic stories I had ever read; V? Trash. Miracleman? MiracleMID. Watchmen? Surface level as hell, but Gibbons kills it so I can't be too mean. The Killing Joke is a completely worthless and vile piece of writing that turned me off this career read-through immediately. Aaaawesome... a year after writing one of the most violently misogynistic comics ever created, he writes a Jack the Ripper story??!
Alan, despite himself, somehow steers his fetish for violence towards meaning here, casting William Gull (Jack the Ripper), as the damnable spirit of the patriarchy. An early chapter frames the violence to come as belonging to a long history of builders, a barely hidden river of filth running underneath the streets of London, serving as inspiration and eventual monument to the patriarchal violence Gull commits. Great care is made to lend weight to the victims of this violence, with the tough and desperate realities of the underclass in London given a life and love that turns the murders into the narratively horrifying and tragic acts that they truly are... I've read that Vigilante two parter so this is quite the progressive step from Moore!!!!!
This story was unimaginably lucky to be rendered by Eddie Campbell, whose sketchy impressionism and whimsical sensibilities keeps this story from being the horridly self-important affair a more traditional comics artists might have steered this script into being. The daily toil of survival sex work and desperate poverty in Whitechapel is depicted with a deft touch and deep empathy, and anchors the five victims as the emotional center through Campbell's wonderful character drama and dialogue pacing. Conversely, the villains of this story (the cops and the killer) are always kept at an emotional distance. The "camera" is kept at arms length, letting the cold professional detachment of the men who make a living off the murders that their bosses let happen lay bare. The closeness, the intimacy that helps us get to know Mary Kelly, Mary Nichols, Liz Stride, and Annie Chapman is gone once we're with Gull and the rest. Incredible, subtle work on display, I'm straight up gonna read Bacchus like right now after this.
Dense and capital-H Historic, From Hell filters the sensationalized serial killings through the filter of the century that came after it. The women who are remembered these days more as corpses are given a humanity that contextualizes the terrible violence as a true tragedy. Condemning the sensationalized culture that springs up around grisly murder, once it comes times to perform the act that we came to this book anticipating, it's disgusting. The crowds that form further the disgust. Hey... I think that's-a the point! Mama mia!!
I'm tired of the air of implied importance that comes along with reading a comic by Alan Moore, but I guess he's owed his due or whatever lol. A while ago I tried a read-through of all his comics, and after reading through the bulk of his 80s work I came out the other end loathing the conversations that won't stop happening about him. What ELSE do you expect after choking down some of the most misogynistic stories I had ever read; V? Trash. Miracleman? MiracleMID. Watchmen? Surface level as hell, but Gibbons kills it so I can't be too mean. The Killing Joke is a completely worthless and vile piece of writing that turned me off this career read-through immediately. Aaaawesome... a year after writing one of the most violently misogynistic comics ever created, he writes a Jack the Ripper story??!
Alan, despite himself, somehow steers his fetish for violence towards meaning here, casting William Gull (Jack the Ripper), as the damnable spirit of the patriarchy. An early chapter frames the violence to come as belonging to a long history of builders, a barely hidden river of filth running underneath the streets of London, serving as inspiration and eventual monument to the patriarchal violence Gull commits. Great care is made to lend weight to the victims of this violence, with the tough and desperate realities of the underclass in London given a life and love that turns the murders into the narratively horrifying and tragic acts that they truly are... I've read that Vigilante two parter so this is quite the progressive step from Moore!!!!!
This story was unimaginably lucky to be rendered by Eddie Campbell, whose sketchy impressionism and whimsical sensibilities keeps this story from being the horridly self-important affair a more traditional comics artists might have steered this script into being. The daily toil of survival sex work and desperate poverty in Whitechapel is depicted with a deft touch and deep empathy, and anchors the five victims as the emotional center through Campbell's wonderful character drama and dialogue pacing. Conversely, the villains of this story (the cops and the killer) are always kept at an emotional distance. The "camera" is kept at arms length, letting the cold professional detachment of the men who make a living off the murders that their bosses let happen lay bare. The closeness, the intimacy that helps us get to know Mary Kelly, Mary Nichols, Liz Stride, and Annie Chapman is gone once we're with Gull and the rest. Incredible, subtle work on display, I'm straight up gonna read Bacchus like right now after this.
Dense and capital-H Historic, From Hell filters the sensationalized serial killings through the filter of the century that came after it. The women who are remembered these days more as corpses are given a humanity that contextualizes the terrible violence as a true tragedy. Condemning the sensationalized culture that springs up around grisly murder, once it comes times to perform the act that we came to this book anticipating, it's disgusting. The crowds that form further the disgust. Hey... I think that's-a the point! Mama mia!!