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Kris Law
Sergeant
Username: Kris
Post Number: 31
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - 4:49 pm: | 
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Not a lot has been written about this graphic novel on the boards, but a lot has been written about the sub par movie made from it.
What do people who have read the book think? |
Holger Haase
Sergeant
Username: Holger
Post Number: 20
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 6:19 am: |
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I'm in two minds about it.
On the one hand an awful lot of heavy research went into the book and I really love Alan Moore's extensive notes about the subject where he clearly differentiates between the historical fact and his own personal fiction. Must admit I actually learned quite a lot just reading these. It's also got an intriguing story (that actually has very little to do with that of the film). Overall that comic gave me hours and hours of stimulating reading time.
On the other hand I do find that some of the language (read: the cuss words) came across more late 20th than late 19th century. And I personally don't take to Campbell's rather scrawny drawing style at all! I have a feeling I may not be the only one: Did you notice how many people talk about it as an "Alan Moore comic"? Not many people mention the Campbell contribution.
Good question BTW. Looking forward to hearing more from others about the comic.
All the best
Holger |
Kris Law
Sergeant
Username: Kris
Post Number: 32
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 9:30 am: |
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Hello Holger,
My initial rection to Mr. Campbell's style was much the same as yours, but I have since come to appreciate it. It reminds me a lot of contemporary illustrations you see in a lot of the newspapers of the day, and despite the fact that it is very spare, it shows quite a bit of detail in what it does show. Take another look at the part where Walter Sickert finds Annie Crooke insane in the rain. At the end of that scene Walter walks away into the poring rain, which Mr. Cambell conveys with only some scratchy vertical lines, but it looks exactly as it should.
And to the best of my knowledge all those cuss words were around in the 1880, the "f" word for example, goes back as far as the early 1700s at least. We probably don't assosiate them with the time period in question because it would be unthinkable for any Victorian to set these words down in print. In fact look at Catcher in the Rye; that was published in the 1950s and still got guff about using the word twice.
Just my opinions though,
Kris |
x
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - 12:11 am: |
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Fully researched, expertly written and illustrated, Messers. Moore and Campbell's novel is a masterwork. Moore's annotations to each chapter are insightful, very funny, and extremely informative. The movie can only suffer in comparison to the graphic novel. In a work of "fiction", Moore has created a most convincing scenario. } |
James Jeffrey Paul
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 8:10 pm: |
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I thought it was a fascinating story, but it suffered from the urge to be as complex as possible--its creators tried to cram EVERY historical fact and EVERY bit of arcane knowledge that they possibly could into it. "Bigger is better" seemed to be their motto. |
Kelly Robinson
Sergeant
Username: Kelly
Post Number: 36
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 12:25 pm: |
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Hi Jeff.
From what I've read of the authors, their starting idea was "what if everybody is right"? I believe the "bigness" you talk about is due to the fact that they attempted to include some of every theory.
Kelly
"The past isn't over. It isn't even past."
William Faulkner
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guestgirl
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 7:48 am: |
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Hello. Just wanted to comment that it's very difficult to read this book and even entertain the possibility that the Ripper is anyone else but Gull: I'm an unabashed Alan Moore fan so I'm biased, but I think this is really well executed. More than anything else, he really gets inside the mind of the kind of guy who would dissect women for kicks; it's really quite frightening. But what makes this book great is that he's also really concerned with the legacy of the 1880s and how it's given birth to the twentieth century. It's worth buying even for the illustrated appendix alone. |
BethanyDodd
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2005 - 4:54 am: |
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I found it to be a fascinating and entertaining read. Especially the research in the back. Much closer to history than the film.
I like the style of the art. It reminds me of contemporary newspaper illustrations.
The language was kind of distracting though. And at times I would have been confused if not for the appendix which explained things (the scene depicting Hitlers conception, for example. I had no idea what was going on).
And I found Gull's floating head kind of disturbing at first...Then downright funny. Ruined the mood for me.
I also didn't like the long chapter in which Gull and Netley tour London. I like history and by itself I like the chapter; but I don't think it fits with the whole very well.
Still, I give it four stars out of five. |
Jonas
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 05, 2005 - 11:55 am: |
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I'm reading 'From Hell' for the 3rd time in probably 3 years. I didn't mean to - I had lent it to a friend and on its return found myself at a loss for something to read on the train home - suffice to say I'm now knee deep in it! It's an amazing book. Apart from being a brilliant work of fiction it also sets the tone of the times and gets inside the characters better than any other work about the subject. I know that a certain amount of snobbery may exist amougst 'Ripperologists' towards the suggestion that they pick up a graphic novel, but they really are doing them a disservice. Alan Moore researched this to an amazing extent, not only by reading (and referencing in fine detail in the notes at the back) almost every book from 'whitechapel's Black Library' but also conducted a level of background research of Victorian living in the East End to an extent that is fascinating. Coupled with Eddie Campbell's artwork (which is scratchy and distracting to begin with but ultimately precise and emotional - recording the historic detail without unneccessary padding and based on fine research himself), a good heap of architechial investigation, a historical tour or London and religion and (in the notes) a finely tuned wit, the book distills in a way that only a graphic novel can. Really - read properly its fiction, non-fiction, character study, history, geographical masterpiece presented and distilled in a way that only a graphic novel will allow. I couldn't honestly give it any less than 5 stars.
Jonas |
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