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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
perhaps the most alan moore comic of all time which is of course a massive compliment. impeccably told, very depressing, a level of focus on the dehumanized victims that i suspect is lacking in many jack the ripper stories.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I accidentally didn't read the blurb for this book before diving in. This is Alan Moore's story of the Jack the Ripper murders in Whitechapel. It weaves together a huge conspiracy narrative involving royalty, Freemasons and ritualistic murder. It was, quite frankly, weird as hell.
I went in blind and as a result, was baffled by the book’s habit of constantly introducing new characters and having whole chapters about them before finally tying them in together to the story and the other characters. It got a bit confusing for a while, but then when it showed their connections to one another things got interesting fast.
There was a lot of hot air here - certain characters like Gull love the sound of their own voice and he's not especially fascinating in his choice of subjects - a lot of philosophy, architecture, history, religion. Which was obviously dry as shit and dragged a little.
I did love seeing how the twists linked up to one another, the pay-off felt huge every time. But the art was especially fascinating - the choice to have a bunch of Gull's scenes in first person, showing his hands as he talks to people was so interesting. And there's a lot of repetition in his scenes - the man has premonitions into the future and then they come true. Speaking of repetition, the use of 3 copies of the scene of Gull berating Lees to show Lees' motivation to bring Gull down was bluntly effective and I enjoyed it.
It was certainly a wild ride. I didn't think I'd enjoy the book generally as much as I did - early chapters are filled with sex and lecturing, and seemed endless and endlessly boring, but it really grew on me. I really loved the weird and wonderful conspiracy surrounding the Jack the Ripper murders, acknowledged at the end by Moore as likely being entirely fictional. It was certainly a memorable graphic novel.
Between a difficult to read font and hard to distinguish characters (literally ended up guessing who was saying what most of the time), I found From Hell to be a bit of a meandering, unnecessarily long take on the unsolved mystery of Jack the Ripper. While I find the occult fascinating, I found Gull’s lengthy speeches to be boring and meandering.
I did not enjoy this as mutch as I would have liked. I had to many problems with the story and the artstyle. When it comes to the art it was hard to follow who was who and I did not appriciate that it had sutch a sketchy style, it feelt like the art was not quite finished. I have reserch quite alot trough the years about Jack the Ripper, but the theory that the royal family is behind it has been my least liked theory and the one I feel is less likely to been the true one, sadly for me this is the theory that they decided to go with in this story so that is why I dident find it so enjoyable.
From hell by Alan more get a 5.8/10 stars.
From hell by Alan more get a 5.8/10 stars.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The sheer scope of the work is what stands out for me. The complexity is often a bit much at times (especially if you have seen the film prior), A few philosophical excursions some would probably skip but I suppose these sections offer a breather between brutal parts of the book.
Read the soft cover compendium. With my reading light and eyes, I often found the lettering small and hard to read. If purchasing an ebook, I would read a few sample pages before committing.
Will be checking out more of Alan Moore as a result of this title.
Read the soft cover compendium. With my reading light and eyes, I often found the lettering small and hard to read. If purchasing an ebook, I would read a few sample pages before committing.
Will be checking out more of Alan Moore as a result of this title.
(Maybe 3.5?) I really wanted to like this book: Jack the Ripper, Victorian London, graphic novel. But there were just too many digressions, the occult subplot was just too weird, and it seemed more like death porn than anything else. I know the art was supposed to be gritty to represent the seedy London Underground but sometimes the panels were too murky to even make out characters and just added to the confusion. I respect the amount of work that went into this piece and liked how theres a section in the back detailing the research/ which parts were totally fictionalized. I obviously liked it well enough to finish the entire thing but don’t quite understand the hype. If you’re really into Jack the Ripper theories then maybe this is for you, but wasn’t my favorite.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes