Legendary comics writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell have created a gripping, hallucinatory piece of crime fiction about Jack the Ripper. Detailing the events that led up to the Whitechapel murders and the cover-up that followed, From Hell has become a modern masterpiece of crime noir and historical fiction.
Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
The first volume of a book set that never happened.
If you ever get the chance to read an Alan Moore script, take it! As I wrote in another review of a similar book...From Hell Companion
"You know how the current theory/ common wisdom is that we only use 10% of our brain? It seems we've only ever read about 10% of what Alan Moore has ever written.
This book is a perfect reason why someone, somewhere, needs to do what Eddie Campbell gives us a taste of here and that's start publishing the COMPLETE ALAN MOORE SCRIPTS. To Quote from E.C.'s introduction,
"These scripts are rich with incident and information that didn't always, or couldn't find its way onto the printed page... Some very fine writing is buried in these scripts, and nobody has ever read it except me." (pg 12)
Details like the color and rationale for the color of clothing, (in a work that he knew would be done in B&W) the psychological underpinning for buildings in the background, amazingly details which is up to the artist to portray in a way he finds possible. (E.C. addresses this in his text, what he kept and what he couldn't)
Frustratingly this is only a taste of what it could have been. As E.C. describes, "I have selected what I find to be the most memorable pages, ninety out of a possible five hundred and one..." (pg 12)"
I haven't actually read this book. Here's why: My copy is a limited edition hardcover signed edition published by Borderlands Press in 1994. It's signed by Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, and Stephen R. Bissette and is number 38 of 1000. This copy has a MSRP of $95.00 and an all-black slip cover box. My trade paperback version of From Hell has many of the fascinating footnotes that this volume collects, so I'm not that interested in reading this volume.
ALSO: I'm not a big collector. I'd rather read a book than collect it. But this particular book stands out as something that transcends my rules about collecting books!
For the love of God, Tim "The book is to be read, not collected."