From Hell
The mad, shaggy genius of the comics world dips deeply into the well of  history and pulls up a cup filled with blood inFrom Hell. Alan Moore did  a couple of Ph.D.'s worth of research into the Whitechapel murders for this  copiously annotated collection of the independently published series. The web of  facts, opinion, hearsay, and imaginative invention draws the reader in from the  first page. Eddie Campbell's scratchy ink drawings evoke a dark and dirty  Victorian London and help to humanize characters that have been caricatured into  obscurity for decades. Moore, having decided that the evidence best fits the  theory of a Masonic conspiracy to cover up a scandal involving Victoria's  grandson, goes to work telling the story with relish from the point of view of  the victims, the chief inspector, and the killer--the Queen's physician. His  characterization is just as vibrant as Campbell's; even the minor characters  feel fully real. Looking more deeply than most, the author finds in the "great  work" of the Ripper a ritual magic working intended to give birth to the 20th  century in all its horrid glory. Maps, characters, and settings are all as  accurate as possible, and while the reader might not ultimately agree with Moore  and Campbell's thesis,From Hellis still a great work of literature.--Rob Lightner--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.