He'll be taking in everything from Gillray and Hogarth, to Scooby Doo and on to Deadpool and beyond! In addition he'll guide you to the best in London comic book stores as well as galleries that showcase the best in the cartoonist's art.
Panel No.19: From Hell
Alan Moore & Eddie
Campbell (1989 - 1996)
The business of
telling the Jack the Ripper tale on a nightly basis is no straightforward task.
Other London tales sit still, remain constant. Jack is fluid.
Much of the
"new" information that comes in on this case with such regularity can
be discarded pretty quickly. But when Alan Moore, one of the great storytellers
of our age weighs-in, it's time to sit up and take notice.
The problem in giving
a critical assessment of this comic book is essentially the same problem as
that which Moore himself faced back in 1988 when he first conceived the
project: what can be said about this subject that hasn't been said before?
Moore found a new
angle on the famous Whitechapel murders by taking an holistic rather than forensic
approach – looking at Victorian society from top-to-bottom to better assess the
causes of such a barbaric episode in British history.
His greatest
achievement is that it's difficult to imagine, in 2015, approaching the case in
any other way. From Hell is often held up as the graphic novel that changed the
world of illustrated fiction forever. But it is also the analysis that changed
the face of this notorious case for all time.
So how to recommend
this comic without recourse to those dread words "iconic" and
"game-changing"?
The rightly garlanded
Mr Moore gives me the perfect opportunity with his annotations to Chapter 4 for
From Hell, in which he writes…
"I should take
this opportunity to point out that From Hell has, if anything, been more
thoroughly researched visually than it has in terms of content."
Chapter Four of From
Hell is simply one of the most thrilling things I have ever read on London.
With the case set up,
the characters, the social background all in the mix, Moore has Sir William
Gull – Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria – take us on a tour of London –
quite literally a guided tour.
In terms of narrative,
this is where the plate-spinning job becomes a superhuman effort with Masonic
lore, ancient myth, legend, literature and political comment all entering the
fray. It's breathless stuff, essentially a monologue from Gull, all hurtling
along like a Russell Brand prose poem.
It is as we
criss-cross the metropolis that artist Eddie Campbell really comes into his
own. His dark, often scratchy style has to this point been employed to
perfectly fashion the unspeakable hell of Victorian Whitechapel.
But when
Campbell lifts our gaze to the obelisks, columns, spires and domes of the city
(particularly in the Nicholas Hawksmoor churches), from Earl's Court to the Isle
of Dogs, he combines the eye of a master draughtsman with the showmanship of
some operatic ringmaster.
It is the way that
Moore and Campbell work together that makes From Hell the landmark work that it
is. Both men are riveting storytellers in their fields, with a seemingly innate ability to know
when the drama needs reining, and when to use the whip.
(A map to Christ Church Spitalfields)
Last word to Moore who
adds in his annotations, with characteristic self-deprecation, the following:
"Suffice to say
that any adequate appendix listing Eddie's sources in the way that 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."
From Hell is published
by Knockabout Comics and you can buy a copy direct from their website here: www.knockabout.com
Catch up with all The Daily Constitutional's Cartoon and Comic Book Tour of London posts here: cartoonandcomicbooklondon.blogspot.co.uk
POST UPDATED 2/2/17
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
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