From Hell: Being a Melodrama in Sixteen Parts

From Hell #1

by Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell (Illustrator)

From Hell staat bekend als een van de grootste meesterwerken uit de stripgeschiedenis, een graphic novel die qua ambitie en complexiteit klassiekers als Watchmen en V for Vendetta ver overstijgt.
In From Hell onderzoeken Alan Moore en Eddie Campbell de mythe van Jack the Ripper, misschien wel de beruchtste moordenaar in de annalen van de misdaad. De verbazingwekkende hoeveelheid research en de beklemmende stijl maken van From Hell een meesterwerk van historische fictie. Het is een literaire ontleding van Victoriaans London, even fascinerend als angstaanjagend.
Voor zijn tekeningen liet Campbell zich inspireren door de impressionisten en de gravures van Victoriaanse illustratoren. Ze vormen de perfecte visualisatie van Moore's duistere visioenen.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Shubhankar Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fabulous start!

[OmniBen · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review for the entire graphic novel) 4.75/5
From Hell is the kind of graphic novel the medium was intended to create. it is also the kind of graphic novel that could never ever be created again nowadays. Moore's other most well known works garner more critical acclaim then From Hell, although in its scope and surgical analysis of the Jack the Ripper murders, nothing else he has done even comes close to this weighty tome. I love a good horror comic, though the comic book doesn't exactly lend itself to telling a scary story in the best possible way. Or maybe its that most modern horror comics are disappointing snooze fests. But From Hell eschews a disturbing, almost giddying paranoia that continues to build and build throughout the entire novel, right up to its terrific climax and appendices. If modern horror is nothing but inane jumps scares that do nothing to build the narrative or tension, then this is a throwback to a terrifying past, when creators and artists where far more adept at creating something worthy of invoking a sense of primordial unease, dread even. The main protagonist in this book, Dr Gull, a respected surgeon and doctor to the Queen is a creation the likes of Hannibal Lector. Intelligent and unnerving, but also frightfully brutal too. It is a character study more than anything else, and every character is original and memorable. From the in over his head police chief who is tasked to solve the murders, the aspiring coachmen who fall sin with Gull, and soon comes to regret it, to the kindly yet doomed prostitutes who are the fodder for his desires. This book is long, some might even say ponderous, Yet every piece of this is pure genius the likes of which has rarely been seen in this medium, or any other. Perhaps its my interest (not an active interest) in the occult and the secret societies that Moore goes into gat deal to highlight and dissect throughout the story, but the book itself exposes so much of London's Freemasonic history, that I was routinely gobsmacked by how Much Moore knew, and was giving away throughout this story. Yes, the drawing s can be crude, and the lettering is scratchy, but that only further adds to its charm. Once you get used to it, I can't imagine it any other way. The coloured version came out shortly after I bought my hardcover copy, and I'm very interested to see how it turns out. This is Moore's masterpiece right here. This is a true study in the unsettling and darker aspects of humanity, and what or who drives us to do unspeakable things. Not everyone will like this book as much as me, but you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try. 4.75/5

OmniBen.

[Lu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would not recommend.

prologue
p2
Abberline (surname)

p6
'ad a good butcher's 'ave yer? (????)

prossies (prostitutes)

he's just browned off 'cause he's not had a bone on in years

I'll have your guts for garters

p7
that's what get's my back up. It's the disrespect.

because we didn't want our lights hung over our shoulders

p8
a bent copper (a crooked cop)

ch1 -
p.1
Cadbury's chocolate in the image

There, two pennorth on the nail. I'd not want to jew you now, would I? I'm sorry they're all of a lump, it's this weather.

p2
Aa, insobriety's no proof against trouble, Mr. Sickert. I once got a cousin o' mine in FEARFUL trouble an she were as tiddly as I were.

p3 (full nudes - m + f)
bubbies (breasts)
my pego (penis)
frig me
your Mr. Perkins (penis)
I'm going to spend (cum)

p5
I don't give a fart for your family.

p7
Irish blather
home rule issue

D'ye know what we call Her Majesty over there? The Famine Queen.

p8
East End men are bone idle, Mr. Sickert. They can hardly afford to be choosy over how their wifes earn a crust, now.

p9
ERE! Come on! some cove's startin' a barney!

ch2
p1
vicissitudes

p2
Less than a thimble full of iodine divided the intellectual from the imbecile

p3
biliousness

p6 (f is widowed mother of 1 boy)
f- Oh, I could not impost upon you so. Surely you'd grow tired with both of us.
m - With one so charming? Dear. Mrs Gull, I should as soon grow tired with life itself.

p7
ministrations

p9
hele

p10 transmuted

p11
syphilitic sarcocele

p15
monolith
despite meaningless laurels

p16
jewes
jubelo
jubela
jubelum

the three treacherous juwes

p17
Jahweh
Baal
Jah-bul-on

Jenner isn't on the square.

p18 (I think this is the Queen speaking about her son)
You saved his life, Dr. Gull. We should be interested to learn if you thought it worth the saving.

p19
Our son is a wastrel and a halfwit, we shudder to think of the throne in his hands.

you will in addition be created a baronet

p21
the priory
you're heart-dead already.

p23
By the divine creator. Mr. Merrick, you are the most dreadfully deformed human being I have ever encountered. It is a great privilege to make your acquaintance.

[Ira · Rating 4 out of 5]

More interesting than I remember. The research notes at the end were particularly interesting and the story itself was fantastic. The art did make things a little hard to follow for me (hard to recognize recurring characters, etc.), but the writing was very good for a graphic novel. The villain (William Gull) as an auger of the nightmare of industrial, cynical modernity reflects something of a bugbear for Moore (it shows up in Providence, which I recently read and arguably in the Watchmen and seems to be the enemy that Promethea struggles against if memory serves), and I think this may be his best formulation of the thesis. It's probably the best of this graphic novels (if I discount my own nostalgic fondness for Neonomicon)

[Zane Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a f***ing compelling piece of literature. The amount of research and attention to detail. The sudden nuances and shifts in time. Everything about this first part of the book is compelling. The prologue is one of the best. Moore is a mastery in foreshadow and authentic and witty dialogue fitting perfectly in place with the time thus proving his literary genius. You didnt like watchmen? Read this book, didnt like V for vendetta? READ THIS BOOK.

[Gabriel Palomares Humanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Increíble como es la propia historia la que va formando la novela y como son los personajes se van definiendo de forma poco clara su personalidad además los dibujos oscuros poco claros y deformados refuerzan la idea del mal en el hombre

[Frank Talk · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book is too good and interesting

[Allanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my kind of thing.

[Mykl Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

.