Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A perfect example of comics as artistic medium, Alan Moore at this best.
As you know, I can't get enough of reading about Jack the Ripper. There are numerous books that are fictional and factual, but this book is somewhere in the middle. Alan Moore has written some of the most critically acclaimed books out there, but I don't think this one gets enough attention. He makes it clear that this book is just a theory on what could've happened during the Ripper killings. This isn't even Moore's idea, but rather he just added more context to it. All the people here did exist, and he even went on to include several historical figures such as the Elephant Man, Aleister Crowley, and Hitler's parents to name a few. All because they were alive at this time, and it was reasonable to think they could be there. Reading the annotations just leaves you amazed by how much detail went into this book. The overall plot and theory itself is super convoluted, but still interesting. We see multiple POVS and despite the size, it moves pretty well. It's also extremely wordy, but nonetheless engaging. Artwork is my favorite, but I do get the point of making it the penny dreadful style of art from the late 1800's. This book is also not for the faint of heart, so much need caution is stressed.
No one except Alan Moore could have written this. No one has his level of obsession, historical detail, conspiracy, while still keeping it as a story based on a premise rather than a theory in itself.
This was painfully boring so I quit a hundred pages in.
Moore's great achievement isn't so much to elevate the comic book as a medium but to explore the possibilities of the format as literature. This is the best thing of his I've yet read, including Watchmen, a work of modernism that references and is shaped by a multimedia trove of touchstones ranging from William Blake to penny dreadfuls, all in service of exploring the role of tabloid frenzy and imperial machinations (the two inseparable even today) in the birth of the 20th century. Moore traverses ecstatic visions of Masonic influence in high-minded riffs that are brutally grounded by Campbell's ink-splash style, which blends hurried sketch, negative space and, finally, an ink-blot middle ground between Romanticism and abstract expressionism.
Gruesome and fascinating, much like the murders themselves. I love how Moore plays with the nature of time and how a phenomenon like Jack the Ripper can reverberate across a society and a century.
Simplemente espectacular. La magnificencia en las historias de Moore en sincronía, en armonía, con las ilustraciones de Eddie Campbell, wow. Dos genios de la narrativa unidos para entregarnos esta novela gráfica informada e imaginada. Súper recomendada.
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I'm not a graphic novels guy, really. I remember reading Watchmen over 10 years ago and enjoying the critique of superheroes, but I was still worried this would be like capeshit. Instead it showed the rich expressiveness the medium has to offer. Maybe the vague scraggle of the art could be frustrating at times, but I thought the style was a perfect fit for this dark walkabout through the cobwebs of violent history. Frankly, I was grateful the brutal mutilations were not rendered with any more detail.