 Word On Books
with Jeremy Fenton
From Hell
By Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
Published by Bantam
 Many years ago Englishman Alan Moore electrified the four-coloured world by doing the unthinkable – creating a multi-layered, vertiginous comic book mini-series for adults called The Watchmen. The 12-issue series told of a group of has-been super heroes who come out of retirement to face the ultimate challenge (and their own past actions). While the milieu is common for the genre, the results were not.
Watchmen was serious, beautiful and satisfying storytelling (that in a world less concerned with appearances would be classed as serious literature). In the 15-odd years since its initial release, Watchmen earned a deserved reputation as the Citizen Kane of the panelled world.
Moore didn't stop at Watchmen though (but he has eventually largely disassociate himself from any mainstream-type comics), following up a string of acclaimed and rich works whose subjects stretch across genres and historical periods.
Not the least of which is his opus on infamous 19th century murderer Jack the Ripper, titled From Hell.
From Hell tells the story of the Whitechapel murders as it has never been told before. Central to the plot is the idea that Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor (Duke of Clarence), had an affair (and child) with East End prostitute Annie Mary Crook.
When Victoria discovers this ‘shocking' indiscretion she orders the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury to do what he must to protect the royal family from disrepute. At this point the royal physician Doctor William Gull and the Freemasons become involved in a plot of intricate detail and suspense.
Now ‘Ripper theories' that involve Doctor Gull and the Masons are not that rare (take for instance the classic conspiracy theory book by Stephen Knight called JTR – The Final Solution, plus the fact that there are a large number of people out there who seriously call themselves ‘Ripperologists'), however Moore's work is much more than just a sanguine conspiracy yarn cobbled together from other books of doubtful pedigree.
This ‘drama in 16 parts' takes up the theme of the Ripper murders being the first step towards modernity (as we now know it) with intelligence and a large amount of research. Moore gives his readers a pivotal cross-roads between the old and just-being-born new world that brought us Oscar Wilde, Annie Besant, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Morris, George Bernard Shaw, and, on the darker side, Adolf Hitler and Aleister Crowley (all of whom make appearances in From Hell alongside such luminaries as William Blake).
The construction, delivery and ending of the 500-plus page work are as good as any I have read in any Booker prize-winning novel.
This edition of From Hell has just been released from Bantam (Random House) in Australia to coincide with the soon-to-be-released film adaptation starring Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Robbie Coltrane. (The film has apparently already stirred up royal historians with its suggestions of royal skullduggery.)
Although From Hell is a work that has been floating around for some time now (it was originally serialised throughout the 90s) in overseas editions, it was recently banned by customs during importation (reportedly for obscenity).
This might have been the last we'd see of From Hell on our shores, but the artist of the piece, Eddie Campbell, resides in Brisbane and quickly sought an Australian publisher.
From Hell will not appeal to all (the title should give a strong hint as to the contents), but for those who enjoy layered, powerful literature this is one incredible and very original work.
www.wordonbooks.com
|
