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A review by lanternatomika
From Hell: Master Edition by Alan Moore
5.0
Hey, have you read V for Vendetta? Boy was Alan Moore worked up about British society in that book, eh? Oh, were you wondering what Alan Moore would say about British society if he weren't shackled by the standards of a DC Comics imprint? Well, From Hell is your book, but proceed with the most extreme caution!
If you've heard anything about From Hell at all, you know that this is the Jack the Ripper book, but there's so much more to it than that. This is Moore at his most cynical, with not a single shred of faith left in humanity, and you might feel the same way after emerging...from hell!
Hell, it turns out, is Whitechapel in the 1800s. It's where dreams and ambitions go to die, and all you have left is to sell anything you have for a pound or two (which took you a lot further before centuries of inflation), even if that is your body. If you've wound up in Whitechapel, you've basically conceded that your life is worth nothing. You could be brutalized in the most heinous way, your body dumped out in the street, and people would just walk by and inform a cop if one happens to be around.
Or worse, people will turn the scandal of your murder into a spectacle, toying with the press and the police, the latter of whom are only interested in cracking the case so the public would leave them alone. And worse than that, they'll continue to fetishize your murder for centuries to come - the point of Dance of the Gull Catchers, an afterword comic, is the condemnation of Ripperology. And yeah, it's hard to argue with the case Moore makes there!
The things we see in this book happened in Whitechapel in 1800s, but they didn't stop there and then, did they? Jack was just the first in a long line of serial killers, of whom some have been caught, while others, like the Ripper himself, may have gotten away. They could be at large now! A big part of what makes From Hell such a nauseating read is that it's actually well researched and accurate, and it was just the beginning of things that haunt our world to this day.
I've read some messed up books this year, but From Hell takes the cake. In typical Alan Moore fashion, this one is packed with tons of details, on top of just being a phenomenal book. It would probably be rewarding to revisit, but I don't think I'm gonna be going back to hell any time soon.
Before I go, though: I read the Master Edition of this book, which was recolored from the black and white of the original by artist Eddie Campbell himself. I'm only half glad that I read the color version; the recolor adds a lot to the story, but the story is a nightmare, so there's that. I do wish that the book had been taller, though, because Moore's trademark 9 panel grids can feel smushed on these pages, and the scrawly lettering can sometimes be hard to read.
If you've heard anything about From Hell at all, you know that this is the Jack the Ripper book, but there's so much more to it than that. This is Moore at his most cynical, with not a single shred of faith left in humanity, and you might feel the same way after emerging...from hell!
Hell, it turns out, is Whitechapel in the 1800s. It's where dreams and ambitions go to die, and all you have left is to sell anything you have for a pound or two (which took you a lot further before centuries of inflation), even if that is your body. If you've wound up in Whitechapel, you've basically conceded that your life is worth nothing. You could be brutalized in the most heinous way, your body dumped out in the street, and people would just walk by and inform a cop if one happens to be around.
Or worse, people will turn the scandal of your murder into a spectacle, toying with the press and the police, the latter of whom are only interested in cracking the case so the public would leave them alone. And worse than that, they'll continue to fetishize your murder for centuries to come - the point of Dance of the Gull Catchers, an afterword comic, is the condemnation of Ripperology. And yeah, it's hard to argue with the case Moore makes there!
The things we see in this book happened in Whitechapel in 1800s, but they didn't stop there and then, did they? Jack was just the first in a long line of serial killers, of whom some have been caught, while others, like the Ripper himself, may have gotten away. They could be at large now! A big part of what makes From Hell such a nauseating read is that it's actually well researched and accurate, and it was just the beginning of things that haunt our world to this day.
I've read some messed up books this year, but From Hell takes the cake. In typical Alan Moore fashion, this one is packed with tons of details, on top of just being a phenomenal book. It would probably be rewarding to revisit, but I don't think I'm gonna be going back to hell any time soon.
Before I go, though: I read the Master Edition of this book, which was recolored from the black and white of the original by artist Eddie Campbell himself. I'm only half glad that I read the color version; the recolor adds a lot to the story, but the story is a nightmare, so there's that. I do wish that the book had been taller, though, because Moore's trademark 9 panel grids can feel smushed on these pages, and the scrawly lettering can sometimes be hard to read.