The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

This must be a week for very handsome hardback editions of classic comics work to arrive and tempt my poor wallet (the poor thing is squeaking in fear like a timid mouse and hiding from me under my desk) – following on from the arrival of the second volume of the Absolute Sandman, I notice today the sudden appearance of large, black tomes in the store, like small-scale Monoliths from 2001, save for a splash of red on the front. Blood red. From Hell. The new limited edition hardback editions from Knockabout. A mere 500 are being printed and oh how I want one of these. Actually I think From Hell is a book that works better as a hardback (limited edition or otherwise) as it is a bit too big for the paperback format; I was always worried by the middle of the book that I could crack the spine. Or maybe that’s just another way my subconscious is trying to justify why I need to buy it.

(the limited edition hardback of Moore and Campbell’s From Hell, published by Knockabout)

But when you’re looking at a lovely edition of one of the more important graphic novels of recent years (apologies to Eddie Campbell, I know he isn’t keen on that term) maybe you don’t need to think up reasons, maybe you just need to buy it. The theories on offer here regarding Jack the Ripper aren’t particular to Alan Moore, many of them have been floated around in a number of books over the years (as booksellers know, Ripperology is a well-fed beast in the book world, our fascination with the case never ends), but it is the way Alan tells the story, builds the characters and the way Eddie’s art and layouts bring it to life (you should check his blog where he talked his way through those pages in some fascinating posts) that makes this better than any other fiction on the subject I’ve read or watched.

(there’s nothing finer for a gentleman than an enjoyable night on the town – panels from Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell’s From Hell)

“Quite brilliant and easily the equal of any prose novel, From Hell deals with the myth and history of Jack the Ripper with a reach that spans not only the events themselves but metaphysical implications reaching centuries into both the past and future.

Ghosts and visions, Masonic conspiracy and arcane architecture, painstaking historical research – Moore takes them all in his stride and makes it seem effortless. From Hell grades a little lower in my top ten than League Vol. 1, but only because it seems at times to lose itself too much in overly obsessive background detail and period trivia,” from a review by author Richard Morgan, who knows a thing or two about good storytelling.