Moore and Campbell's work is astoundingly good in this volume, crafting a literary tale unique to the medium of comics and sequential art. The comic is everything that the film wasn't, an erudite fictional examination of the world and circumstances during which the Whitechapel murders took place. Though Moore based the plot principally on one of many contentious theories about the identity of Jack the Ripper, the book isn't about that, so much as it's about the character of the principle actors in the drama, and their attempts to live in a tumultuous era that Moore sets up as the gateway to the horrors and wonders of the 20th century.
Campbell's art sometimes feels cramped by the density necessary to convey Moore's plot, but his art seems to become more precise and focussed as the narrative continues. The black and white style of the book lends it a stripped down feel, laid raw by Campbell's style. This helps add a hefty emotional weight that would be lost with the high-production color values of mainstream comics.
In addition to the work itself, Moore supplies an appendix of notes to the reference material he used to meticulously craft the setting and dialogue of many of the historic scenes (taken virbatim from historical accounts when possible). He and Campbell have a second appendix, a brief comic about the armchair historian quest to discover the identity of Jack the Ripper, and the unlikelihood that it will ever come to fruition.
A fantastic work, and worth checking out both for fans of great comics and fans of great literature.
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From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Blake, April 18, 2008
Moore and Campbell's work is astoundingly good in this volume, crafting a literary tale unique to the medium of comics and sequential art. The comic is everything that the film wasn't, an erudite fictional examination of the world and circumstances during which the Whitechapel murders took place. Though Moore based the plot principally on one of many contentious theories about the identity of Jack the Ripper, the book isn't about that, so much as it's about the character of the principle actors in the drama, and their attempts to live in a tumultuous era that Moore sets up as the gateway to the horrors and wonders of the 20th century.Campbell's art sometimes feels cramped by the density necessary to convey Moore's plot, but his art seems to become more precise and focussed as the narrative continues. The black and white style of the book lends it a stripped down feel, laid raw by Campbell's style. This helps add a hefty emotional weight that would be lost with the high-production color values of mainstream comics.
In addition to the work itself, Moore supplies an appendix of notes to the reference material he used to meticulously craft the setting and dialogue of many of the historic scenes (taken virbatim from historical accounts when possible). He and Campbell have a second appendix, a brief comic about the armchair historian quest to discover the identity of Jack the Ripper, and the unlikelihood that it will ever come to fruition.
A fantastic work, and worth checking out both for fans of great comics and fans of great literature.