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From Hell is a brick of a book by legendary author Alan Moore. It presents one theory (since discredited) about the Jack The Ripper killings, and in so doing presents us with the story from every conceivable angle. The result is an exhaustive (albeit fictional) account of a sweeping slice of Victorian landscape.

From Hell is dense, multi-layered, and overflowing with an obsessive connect-the-dots tone that fancifully associates the events to everything from Aleister Crowley's childhood to Hitler's conception. The murders are, of course, the central events of the book, and are depicted as an elaborate Masonic ritual by the killer (with pages and pages of Masonic theory to boot), but devotes considerable time to even the minor characters, a sort of pantheistic character study of an entire society.

There is little doubt that From Hell is a "great work" from a strictly literary perspective. Its devilish intricacy and boldly experimental approach make it a pioneering achievement. At the same time, it is not an enjoyable read. Setting aside for a moment its most uncomfortable moments (most notably a gruesomely detailed depiction of every step involved in the Ripper's most famous killing), large patches of the text are dull and technical. Other tangents, presumably included for "completeness," seem superfluous and distract from the central focus of the story.

Making matters worse is the artwork of Eddie Campbell, which can kindly be called "pen-and-ink impressionism" and less kindly be called "chickenscratch." Apart from robbing much of the story of the shading a black-and-white style needs to really breath, it also often makes it extremely difficult to recognize characters. Readers must depend on gross physical characteristics (weight, facial hair, outfit) to keep track of which character is which in many cases.

Ironically, the best part of the book is an appendix comic-essay called "The Dance of the Gull Catchers," which explores the difficulty of studying the history of the killings. Moore and Campbell also provide an exhaustive overview of which parts of the story are fictionalized and which have some basis in reality, an exceptionally rare move in historical graphic fiction.

On the back cover, Moore states, "For my part I am concerned with cutting into and examining the still-warm corpse of history itself." This, we can all agree, he has done. The sad truth, however, is that this examination, while epic and masterful, still isn't especially rewarding to watch.