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Moore and Campbell refuse to avert their eyes to even the most brutal or despairing content. Not only do we see the victims plying their trade in the least glamorous ways possible -- hurried couplings against filthy alley walls for a handful of pence -- but the murders are captured with ghastly precision. The book reaches its zenith (or nadir) in Chapter 10 with the last and grisliest of the killings, shown in such detail that it's all you can do to keep your eyes on the page. Still, the graphic novelists aren't in it for splatterpunk shock value. "From Hell" asserts that the Ripper killings provided a catalyst for the 20th century, both figuratively -- the murders and their coverage anticipated tabloid journalism and the modern fascination with serial killers -- and literally. As Gull goes about his dreadful business, he experiences increasingly vivid visions of London in the 1990s. From Hell By Allan Moore
"From Hell" is as heavily researched as any scholarly work. Although the appendix is superfluous in the human body, here it's as crucial as the heart. Almost every page features end-notes in which Moore not only cites his historica sources but muses on everything from London's "dionysiac" architecture to streetwalking lingo like "thrupenny upright." He writes, "Any adequate appendix listing Eddie's sources [for the book's images] in the way I am listing mine would be twice as long as this current monstrosity, which in itself looks set to end up twice as long as the work to which it refers." You'd think that you'd flip past the end-notes with eyes glazing over, but instead the opposite happens. To read "From Hell" is to temporarily become a Ripperologist yourself, jazzed by the case's facts, myths and weird coincidences. As you go, you realize that the hero isn't Abberline pursuing his investigation but Moore conducting his own. In "Appendix II: Dance of the Gull Catchers," Moore and Campbell use the comic form to recount, with tongue often in cheek, the strange history of Ripper theorizing. Ripperologists are shown as a mob of manic men with butterfly nets, and Moore himself eventually joins their ranks. Alongside the multi-colored pages of most comics, "From Hell" is as grim and artfully ugly as the picture of Dorian Gray. And though "From Hell" has enjoyed auspicious awards and flattering imitations (Dave Sim, creator of the satiric "Cerebus" comic book, is using Moore's method of historical recreation to create a fictionalized life of F. Scott Fitzgerald), it remains less well-known than "Watchmen" both inside and outside the comic book realm. The planned film adaptation of "From Hell" (frequently associated with "Menace II Society's" Hughes Brothers) might raise its profile. During the rest of the 1990s, when not meditating on the Ripper, Moore wrote the novel "Voice of the Fire" (unpublished in the U.S.) and has dabbled in shamanism. Lately, he's been explosively productive, even cracking Entertainment Weekly's "It" list last summer. He's created a spate of new titles, including "Tom Strong," about a square-jawed hero evocative of the 1930s pulps, and "Top 10," about a superpowered police force that's something like "Hill Street Blues" with capes. The best of these is the six-issue "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which is the soufflé after the rich Victorian meal of "From Hell." Set in 1898, Moore assembles fictitious figures like Allan Quartermain, Dr. Jekyll and Captain Nemo and pits them against such period villains as Fu Manchu. In a characteristic Moore touch, virtually all of the background figures come from literature; they include characters created by Henry James to Edgar Allen Poe. Like the rest of Moore's current comics, "League" is a lark. But nice as it is to see the comic book stores replenished with Moore's work, none of his current stuff is nearly as challenging or innovative as "From Hell" or "Watchmen." It would be a shame if he stays in the relative safety of the lite books at the expense of his deeper, more grown-up writing. Perhaps the second coming of "From Hell" will prompt him to make another stab at it.
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