From Hell Review: Alan Moore’s Jack the Ripper Epic
Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's dense Jack the Ripper masterwork.
By Web Admin
Some graphic novels you finish in an afternoon. From Hell is not one of them. Written by Alan Moore and drawn by Eddie Campbell, this monumental Jack the Ripper epic was serialised from 1989 to 1998, then collected into a single roughly 570-page volume that reads less like a comic than like a haunted history book. It is dense, demanding, footnoted to within an inch of its life, and quietly one of the most ambitious works the medium has ever produced. This is our full review of From Hell — what it is, why it’s so difficult, and who should actually read it.
Content warning up front: From Hell contains extremely graphic violence, including detailed depictions of murder and mutilation, as well as sexual content and disturbing psychological material. It is a book for adults with strong stomachs, and we don’t recommend it lightly.
What is From Hell?
From Hell is a graphic novel about the 1888 Whitechapel murders — the killings attributed to “Jack the Ripper.” But calling it a murder mystery is misleading. Moore isn’t interested in the whodunit; he tells you who the killer is early on. Instead, he uses the murders as a doorway into an enormous meditation on class, power, madness, misogyny, architecture, and what he calls the “birth of the twentieth century.” The title comes from the salutation on one of the real letters purportedly sent by the killer.
Moore builds his narrative on the “royal conspiracy” theory popularised by author Stephen Knight — the idea that the murders were orchestrated to cover up a scandal involving the royal family. Moore is completely upfront that this theory is almost certainly untrue; he uses it not as fact but as a framework, a “what if” that lets him dramatise the social forces of the era. That distinction matters, and he spells it out in the book’s appendices.
The story: a killer, a detective, and a city
The book follows two central figures. Sir William Gull is Queen Victoria’s physician, a Freemason who — in Moore’s fictionalised telling — becomes the murderer, carrying out the killings as a kind of magical, city-shaping ritual. Inspector Frederick Abberline is the weary, decent policeman assigned to catch a killer he is quietly being prevented from catching. Around them orbit the victims — Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Kelly — poor women whom Moore insists on treating as human beings rather than props.
The most notorious and astonishing chapter is Gull’s carriage tour of London, in which he lectures his coachman on the hidden pagan and Masonic geometry buried in the city’s churches and monuments. It’s a bravura piece of comics writing — pages of dense monologue that somehow become hypnotic rather than tedious — and it crystallises the book’s real subject: the machinery of power that grinds ordinary people into history.
The themes: power, class, and the birth of a century
Beneath the true-crime surface, From Hell is a book about how the modern world was made. Moore argues, through Gull, that the Whitechapel murders were a kind of dark ritual that “gave birth” to the twentieth century — its violence, its media spectacle, its industrialised cruelty. The victims are among the era’s most powerless people: poor, working-class women without protection or standing, disposable in the eyes of the institutions around them. Moore’s fury at that injustice is the beating heart of the book, and it’s what elevates the whole thing above ghoulish sensationalism.
It is also, characteristically for Moore, deeply concerned with magic, ritual, and the idea that ideas themselves have physical consequences. Readers who know his later work will recognise the obsessions taking shape here. Those coming from his more famous books will find familiar preoccupations in a much stranger, darker register.
The art: Eddie Campbell’s scratchy black and white
Eddie Campbell’s artwork divides new readers, and it’s worth understanding before you buy. This is not the clean, polished linework of a superhero comic. Campbell draws in a loose, scratchy, heavily cross-hatched black-and-white style that can look rough or even ugly at first glance. Stick with it. The murk is the point: the art evokes the soot, fog, and gaslit gloom of Victorian London better than any slick rendering could, and its very roughness lends the horror a documentary, unglamorous weight. By the end, it’s impossible to imagine the book drawn any other way.
The appendices: a book within the book
One of the most remarkable things about From Hell is what comes after the story. The book includes roughly 40 pages of dense annotations (“Dance of the Gull Catchers” and the extensive endnotes) in which Moore documents his sources page by page, distinguishes fact from invention, and reflects on the entire cottage industry of “Ripperology.” These notes are not optional extras for completists; they reframe the whole work, revealing it as a rigorous, self-aware interrogation of how we turn real atrocity into entertainment. Reading them is part of reading the book.
Content warning: how dark is it, really?
Very. From Hell depicts the murders in unflinching, anatomical detail, and one late sequence is among the most harrowing in all of comics. There is graphic violence, disturbing sexual content, and a pervasive atmosphere of dread. Moore and Campbell are never gratuitous — the horror is meant to disturb, not to thrill — but this is emphatically not a book to hand to a squeamish reader, a teenager, or anyone looking for a fun evening. Approach it the way you’d approach a serious, brutal piece of historical fiction.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Astonishingly ambitious and intelligent
- Exhaustively researched, with honest fact-vs-fiction annotations
- Treats the victims as real people, not set dressing
- Unlike anything else in the medium
Cons
- Extremely dense and slow to read
- Graphic, disturbing violence throughout
- Campbell’s scratchy art isn’t for everyone
- Absolutely not a beginner’s comic
How From Hell compares to other Alan Moore books
If you know Moore from his more accessible landmarks, it helps to place From Hell on the map before diving in.
| Book | Genre | Length | Approx. price | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| From Hell | Historical / horror | ~572 pp | ~US$35 | Very hard |
| Watchmen | Superhero deconstruction | 416 pp | ~US$20 | Hard |
| V for Vendetta | Dystopian thriller | 296 pp | ~US$20 | Moderate |
If you haven’t read Moore before, start elsewhere. Our Watchmen review and V for Vendetta review both cover far friendlier entry points. Come to From Hell once you already trust him as a writer.
Which edition should you buy?
Because this is a black-and-white book built on fine linework and small lettering, the edition you choose genuinely affects the reading experience.
| Edition | Format | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard paperback | Softcover, complete | ~US$35 | Most readers |
| Master Edition | Recoloured / tonal, larger | ~US$45 | Appreciating the art |
| From Hell Companion | Scripts & commentary | ~US$25 | Deep-dive fans |
For a first read, the standard collected paperback is all you need — just make sure you’re buying the complete edition with the appendices intact. The later “Master Edition” adds tonal grey shading that some readers love and purists skip.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonThe film adaptation
The 2001 film starring Johnny Depp as Abberline shares a title and a premise, but it’s a very different, much simpler beast — a stylish period thriller that jettisons most of Moore’s ideas. It’s fine as a movie; it is not a substitute for the book, and Moore himself famously wanted nothing to do with it. If the film is all you know of From Hell, you have barely met it.
Is From Hell worth it?
For the right reader, absolutely. This is one of the crowning achievements of the comics medium — a work of genuine literary and historical ambition that could not exist in any other form. But it asks a great deal: patience, attention, and a tolerance for real darkness. If you want a demanding, rewarding book that treats you as an intelligent adult, it belongs high on your list. It sits comfortably among the best crime and noir comics and the best standalone graphic novels ever made.
The verdict
From Hell is not entertainment in the usual sense; it’s an experience you undergo. Give it the time and attention it demands and it will change how you think about comics, history, and the stories we tell about violence. Just know what you’re signing up for. It’s a permanent fixture on our best graphic novels list and a book every serious reader gets to eventually.
Frequently asked questions
Is From Hell based on a true story?
It’s based on the real 1888 Whitechapel murders, but the identity of the killer and the royal-conspiracy plot are fiction. Moore builds on a discredited theory and says so plainly in the book’s extensive appendices, which separate documented fact from his invention.
Is From Hell hard to read?
Yes — it’s one of the densest mainstream graphic novels out there. The black-and-white art is deliberately murky, the dialogue is period-accurate, and several chapters are heavy with monologue and annotation. It rewards slow, attentive reading.
How graphic is From Hell?
Extremely. It depicts murder and mutilation in anatomical detail and includes disturbing sexual content. It is strictly for adults, and even then it’s not for the squeamish.
Should I read From Hell before other Alan Moore books?
No. Start with something more accessible like Watchmen or V for Vendetta and work up to From Hell once you’re comfortable with his style and ready for the darkness.
Next, explore more of the writer’s work in our V for Vendetta review, or browse the shadows in our best crime and noir comics guide.
