FROM HELL 5/32

B elieve it or not, there are two versions of the opening two panels of this FROM HELL page, and I still can't decide for sure which is correct. Sometimes you question a drawing once and you are never capable of having a clear thought about it again. 'left to Right". Gull's left hand, Polly's left, or the viewer's? I scanned the top two panels from the Old Kitchen Sink press edition. I changed it later for my own edition, but looking at it again... AAARRGGG.
A couple of other things are different from the script. Alan asks for eight panels and I made it nine; he also asks for an intercut of an earlier image from chapter two of the boy Gull holding the dead rat in his hand and dissecting it with his pocket knife, but I felt that offering an escape from the oppressing horror of the moment, whether as a flashback or into the mind of the murderer, might weaken the scene.

FROM HELL. CHAPTER FIVE. PAGE 32. ( 1318 words)
PANEL 1.
NOW AN EIGHT PANEL PAGE. THERE ARE THREE PANELS ON EACH OF THE TWO BOTTOM MOST TIERS, AND TWO PANELS ON THE TOP TIER. THE FIRST PANEL ON THE TOP TIER IS A SINGLE WIDTH PANEL, THE SECOND A DOUBLE WIDTH PANEL. IN THIS FIRST PANEL, GULL CROUCHES BY THE BODY WITH THE LISTON KNIFE NOW IN HIS RIGHT HAND. THE HAND IS CROSSED OVER HIS CHEST AS HE RAISES IT, SO THAT THE BLADE IS HELD OVER HIS LEFT SHOULDER IN PREPARATION FOR THE DOWNWARD ARC. WITH HIS FREE HAND HE GESTURES CASUALLY AND DEMONSTRATIVELY TOWARDS THE HAND IN WHICH HE HOLDS THE KNIFE, LIKE A SALESMAN GIVING A FREE DEOMONSTRATION. PERHAPS HE EVEN GLANCES UP TOWARDS NETLEY TO SEE IF THE COACHMAN IS PAYING ATTENTION. GULL IS ENTIRELY CALM AND RELAXED. STANDING JUST BEHIND HIM, NETLEY HOLDS THE TREMBLING LANTERN AND LOOKS ON, APPALLED YET UNABLE TO LOOK AWAY, MESMERIZED BY THE GENTLE AND REASSURING CADENCE OF GULL’S VOICE. THE MOST IMPORTANT OBJECT TO FOCUS ON IN THIS PANEL IS THE HAND IN WHICH GULL HOLDS THE LISTON KNIFE, POISED UP ABOVE HIS LEFT SHOULDER AND READY TO FALL.
GULL: Thank you. Now, watch me closely:
GULL: Left…

PANEL 2.
NOW THE DOUBLE SIZED PANEL, TAKEN FROM THE SAME ANGLE AS OUR LAST SHOT. BUT BIGGER. GULL SEEMS TO HAVE HARDLY MOVED A MUSCLE, AND YET NOW HIS RIGHT HAND IS RAISED BY HIS RIGHT SIDE, FLUNG OUT FROM HIS BODY, AND IS NO LONGER ACROSS HIS CHEST. THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT HAS MOVED. OTHERWISE, GULL IS COMPLETLEY STILL. THERE IS NOT AN OUNCE OF WASTED EFFORT OR MOVEMENT. THE CUT HAS ALSO BEEN MADE WITH TREMENDOUS SPEED AND CERTAINTY. IN THE FOREGROUND, POLLY’S SHOUDLERS HAVE LIFTED OFF THE FLOOR WITH THE TREMENDOUS FORCE OF THE BLOW. HER HEAD DANGLES BACK HORRIBLY FROM HER NECK, AND WE CAN SEE THAT IT IS ALMOST SEVERED. THE BLADE HAS ALMOST CUT COMPLETELY THROUGH POLLY’S SPINE, ALL IN ONE TERRIBLE MOTION, TOO SWIFT TO SEE. GULL’S EXPRESSION IS STILL COMPLETELY CALM. IN THIS IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND, NETLEY TAKES AN INVOLUNTARY STEP BACKWARDS AND RAISES HIS FREE HAND TO HIS MOUTH, HIS OTHER HAND STILL HOLDING THE LATERN. HIS EYES ARE WIDE WITH SHOCK AS HE WITNESSES THE NEAR-DECAPITATION. THE MIAN THING TO CONVEY HERE IS THE HIDEOUS FORCE COILED IN GULL; THE TERRIBLE SENSE OF DEVASTATION WITHOUT EFFORT.
GULL: ..to right.

POLLY LIES TOWARDS THE FOREGROUND HERE, WITH HER HEAD POINTING AWAY FROM US, LOLLING HORRIBLY TO ONE SIDE. GULL, STILL CROUCHING, IS DOWN BY HER FEET TOWARDS THE FOREGROUND. STILL HOLDING THE BLOODIED LISTON KNIFE IN ONE HAND, WITH THE OTHER HE IS IRRITABLY RAISING POLLY’S SKIRTS UP AROUND HER WAIST. THERE ARE ABOUT THREE OF THEM IN ALL, INCLUDING THE TWO UNDERSKIRTS. SHE WEARS NO OTHER UNDERWEAR, AND ABOVE THE TOP OF THE DIRTY, BLACK-WOOL STOCKINGS THERE IS NOTHING BUT THE DEAD WHITE FLESH AND SAD GREY FUR OF THE PUDENDA, PATHETICALLY EXPOSED. GULL MUTTERS IRRITABLY TO HIMSELF AS HE LIFTS THE SKIRTS UP OUT OF THE WAY, EXPOSING THE DEAD WOMAN’S BELLY. STANDING IN THE IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND WE SEE NETLEY, STILL HOLDING THE LANTERN. HE TURNS HIS FACE AWAY, UNABLE TO WATCH AND HORRIBLY SHAKEN BY THE NEAR-BEHEADING HE HAS JUST WITNESSED. WILL THIS PARADE OF HORRORS NEVER CEASE?
NETLEY: Oh God..
GULL: Now for the rest. Ah, these confounded under-skirts! How many is she wearing?
GULL: Ah. Ah, there we are…

PANEL 4.
NOW WE ARE LOOKING THROUGH GULL’S EYES AS HE CROUCHES BY THE BODY. IT LIES THERE BENEATH US WITH THE SKIRTS RUCKED UP AROUND THE WAIST, THE WHITE BELLY-FLESH REVEALED. ALL WE CAN SEE OF GULL HERE ARE HIS HANDS, THE RIGHT ONE HOLDING THE LISTON KNIFE. HE IS PUSHING THE POINT OF THE LONG BLADE INTO THE FLESH DOWN TO THE RIGHT OF THE PELVIC AREA, NEAR WHERE THE DIAPHRAGM IS IF I HAVE MY ANATOMY RIGHT. FROM HERE THE BLADE WILL TRAVEL ACROSS THE ABDOMEN, MOVING UPWARDS IN A ROUGH DIAGONAL UNTIL IT COMES TO REST TWO OR THREE INCHES FROM THE LEFT HAND SIDE. THE POINT OF THE BLADE HAS ALREADY BEEN PUSHED ABOUT TWO INCHES INTO POLLY’S FLESH HERE, AND THERE IS NO DOUBT FROM THE ANGLE OF IT BUT THAT IT WILL GO DEEPER. HOWEVER, THE CUT IS ONLY JUST BEGUN. WE JUST SUGGEST VISUALLY THE APPROXIMATE LINE IT WILL TAKE FROM THE ANGLE AT WHICH GULL IS HOLDING THE BLADE. WE ARE UTTERLY ABSORBED IN THE MUTILATION HERE, AND NETLEY NEED NOT BE VISIBLE: JUST POLLY’S BELLY AND GULL’S HANDS.
No Dialogue.

PANEL 5.
NOW, THIS NEXT PANEL I’M INTO TWO MINDS ABOUT. WE HAVE TO GET OVER A NUMBER OF MUTILATIONS IN ABOUT THREE PANELS HERE. SINCE WE CANNOT SHOW HIM MAKING EVERY STROKE, I FIGURED WE HAVE TO CONDENSE IT SOMEHOW. NOW, WHAT I WANT TO DO IN THIS PANEL IS TO SIMPLY REPRODUCE THE PANEL FROM CHAPTER TWO WHERE WE SEE THE RAT BEING DISSECTED THROUGH THE EYES OF YOUNG WILLIAM GULL, THE BLADE MOVING UP ACROSS ITS DEAD BELLY, SLITTING IT OPEN. I THINK THAT WOULD WORK OKAY DRAMATICALLY AND WOULD GIVE A SENSE OF THE PURELY CLINICAL AND DETACHED MEDICAL MIND AT WORK HERE. THE ONLY THING IS THAT I HAVE A SLGIHT FEELING THAT IT MIGHT LOOK AS IF WE’RE BEING SQUEAMISH, OR BEING ARTSY TO AVOID OUR PROCLAIMED INTENTION OF PRESENTING THE MURDERS HONESTLY AND REALISTICALLY. ANYWAY, SEE WHAT THE BEST WAY TO HANDLE IT IS, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, BUT IF YOU CAN THINK OF A BETTER WAY THEN PLEASE GO AHEAD. IF WE GO WITH THE RAT IDEA THEN ALL WE SEE HERE IS AN EXACT REPRODUCTION OF CHAPTER TWO, PAGE SIX, PANEL THREE, WITH THE BLADE MOVING ACROSS THE RAT’S STOMACH.
No Dialogue.

PAGE 32.
PANEL 6.
NOW BACK TO REALITY, FOR A SHOT ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME IN COMPOSITION AS PANEL FOUR. WE LOOK DWON THROUGH GULL’S EYES AT POLLY’S ABDOMEN. THERE IS THE ROUGH AND JAGGED DIAGONAL CUT RUNNING FROM ABOUT THREE INCHES FROM THE LEFT OF POLLY’S STOMACH DOWN TO HER DIAPHRAGM. THERE ARE THREE OR FOUR CUTS RUNNING VERTICALLY DOWNWARDS ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE, AND THERE ARE SEVERAL INCISIONS RUNNING HORIZONTALLY ACROSS THE ABDOMEN. IN ADDITION TO THAT, THERE ARE TWO CUTS AROUND THE VAGINAL AREA. ALL OF THESE CUTS ARE VERY DEEP, AND ARE SEEPING PROFUSELY WITH BLOOD. ALL IN ALL, GULL HAS MADE A REAL FUCKING MESS OF HER. AS WE SEE HIS BLOOD STAINED HANDS HERE HE IS JUST STARTING TO WITHDRAW THE DRIPPING LISTON KNIFE, HIS WORK FINISHED ACCORDING TO HIS SATISFACTION.
GULL (OFF) : There.

PANEL 7.
STILL LOOKING DOWN THROUGH GULL’S EYES AT POLLY’S ABDOMEN, BUT HERE HE HAS PUT THE LISTON KNIFE DOWN SOMEHWERE OFF PANEL, PERHAPS RETURNING IT TO ITS CASE. HERE, HIS HANDS ARE EMPTY, ALTHOUGH HEAVILY BLOODSTAINED, AS HE REACHES DOWN AND STARTS TO PRY HIS FINGERS INTO THE RAISED LIPS OF THE DEEPEST WOUND THAT RUNS DIAGONALLY ACROSS HER STOMACH. HIS FINGERS DIP IN, ABOUT TO PRY THE EDGES OF THE WOUND APART. EVERYTHING IS DARK AND BLOODY.
GULL (OFF) : Now..
GULL (OFF) : Let’s see what we have h..

PANEL 8.
SAME SHOT, LOOKING DOWN THROUGH GULL’S EYES. HERE, HOWEVER, HIS FINGERS HAVE PULLED THE SIDES OF THE WOUND BACK. OPENING IT TO OUR VIEW. INSIDE POLLY NICHOL’S STOMACH CAVITY THERE SEEMS TO BE A PURE AND LOVELY GREY-WHITE LIGHT, POOLED IN A BRILLIANT AND LUMINOUS LIQUID MIST. IT SHINES UPWARDS, ILLUMINATING GULL’S BLOODIED HANDS, ITS SOFT, ALMOST HOLY GLOW LIGHTING THE CRUMPLED FOLDS OF POLLY’S RAISED UNDERSKIRTS, LIGHTING THE WOUNDS ACROSS HER STOMACH AND FLINTING UPON HER PUBIC HAIR. THE LIGHT SHINES OUT OF POLLY, RELIGIOUS AND BRIGHT AND MYSTICAL. POURING THROUGH HER JAGGED WOUND AS GULL’S FINGERS PRY IT OPEN.
No Dialogue

FROM HELL 5/31

C ontinuing my presentation of Alan Moore's script for From Hell. The first of the murders has been perpetrated and Gull is about to perform his symblic ministrations upon the body.
The case containing the surgical knives seems to want more attention than I gave it here, but what was I to do in the grim darkness of the location and with nine tiny pictures to put on the page. For one, I showed Gull's cutlery in detailed close up on the cover of the third volume from Kitchen Sink Press, (with the help of April Post who assisted me for a spell in the early '90s). There's a look below at the cover of the Brazilain edition.The case in the movie was more pictorially attractive, with it's blood-red velvet lining. I can't find a picture of it online. These pages are mostly just getting the details and business right, but there's a choice phrase below that could only have come from Moore: "THE SHADOWS LEAP LIKE AN ASYLUM GYMNASTICS TEAM."

FROM HELL. CHAPTER FIVE. PAGE 31. (1437 words)
PANEL 1.
ANOTHER NINE PANEL PAGE HERE. TOWARDS THE FOREGROUND, GULL CROUCHES IN A BUSINESS-LIKE MANNER BY THE OPEN GLADSTONE BAG, FROM WHICH HE IS REMOVING THE WOODEN CASE CONTAINING THE AMPUTATION KIT. NETLEY HOVERS IN THE BACKGROUND, NEAR WHERE POLLY NICHOLS’ BODY LIES SPRAWLED. HE IS LOOKING TOWARDS GULL NERVOUSLY AS HE SPEAKS, HOLDING UP THE LANTERN SO THAT HE CAN SEE GULL PROPERLY. HE LOOKS AGITATED AND SCARED. GULL, CROUCHING OVER THE GLADSTONE BAG, PAYS HIM NO HEED AND DOES NOT LOOK AT HIM. HE CHUCKLES TO HIMSELF AS HE EXTRACTS THE AMPUTATION KIT FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE GLADSTONE.
NETLEY: Right. We’ll be away then, shall we, sir?
GULL: Ha ha! With the job half done? I think not. She must be finished with according to the ritual.

PANEL 2.
NOW WE REVERSE ANGLE SO THAT WE ARE SLIGHTLY BEHIND NETLEY, LOOKING PAST HIM AS HE STANDS FACING AWAY FROM US, ROUGHLY HEAD AND SHOULDERS IN THE FOREGROUND, THE LANTERN HELD UP IN HIS HAND. FROM WHAT LITTLE WE CAN SEE OF HIS EXPRESSION HE JUST LOOKS MISERABLE AND UNEASY. LOOKING BEYOND HIM WE SEE GULL, WHO HAS RISEN TO HIS FEET, LEAVING THE OPEN GLADSTONE BAG THERE ON THE COBBLES BEHIND HIM, AND HAS TURNED AND APPROACHED NETLEY. HE STANDS FACING US, LIT BY THE LATERN GLOW, ROUGHLY HALF TO THREE QUARTER FIGURE IN THE IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND. HE HOLDS THE AMPUTATION KIT BEFORE HIM, AND HE IS OPENING IT AS HE SPEAKS TO NETLEY. HE IS LOOKING DOWN AT THE CASE AS HE DOES THIS, RAHTER THAN AT NETLEY. THE LATERN TREMBLES WITH THE PULSE IN NETLEY’S UPRAISED ARM. THE SHADOWS SHIFT AND THEN REGROUP.
NETLEY: But… but she’s dead, sir. There’s no need..
GULL: Would you be a Mason, Netley? Three Rivals betrayed Hiram Abiff, Masonry’s founder.
GULL: Their throats were cut from left to right.

PANEL 3.
CHANGE ANGLES. ALL WE CAN SEE OF GULL IN THE FOREGROUND ARE HIS HANDS, EMERGING FROM OFF PANEL. IN FACT, IT’S AS IF WE SEE THIS PANEL THROUGH GULL’S EYES. WITH ONE HAND, HE HOLDS THE SMALL WOODEN AMPUTATION CASE. WITH THE OTHER, HE HAS EXTRACTED THE LISTON KNIFE FROM ITS SLIT-LIKE RECESS AND IS HOLDING IT UP INTO THE LATERN LIGHT, FOR NETLEY TO SEE. IT HAS A LONG, STRAIGHT, DOUBLE EDGED BLADE OF ABOUT EIGHT INCHES. THE METAL HANDLE IS A FURTHER THREE INCHES AND HAS A CRISS-CROSS PATTERN IN THE METAL TO ENHANCE THE GRIP IN SLIPPERY CONDITIONS. IT IS AN EXCEPTIONALLY BEAUTIFUL KNIFE. LOOKING BEYOND IT WE SEE NETLEY HOLDING UP THE LANTERN AND LOOKING TOWARDS US AND THE KNIFE WITH A SLIGHTLY SICK EXPRESSION. HE CAN FEEL STRONG RIP-TIDES SUCKING THE SAND AWAY FROM BENEATH HIS FEET. THE CURRENTS ARE STRONGER HERE THAN HE EVER IMAGINED, AND HE FEARS THAT THEY WILL TUG HIM OUT INTO AN OCEAN TOO TERRIBLE TO BE THOUGHT OF.
GULL: Now, this is a Liston knife.
GULL: A Crimean battle-surgeon, Liston had legs on the sawdust in less than a minute with these blades.
GULL: Remarkable.

PANEL 4.
NOW WE ARE LOOKING THROUGH NETLEY’S EYES. ALL WE CAN SEE OF NETLEY IS HIS FREE HAND, THE ONE NOT HOLDING THE LATERN. IT ENTERS INTO THE PANEL FROM OFF IN THE FOREGROUND. IN THE IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND, LIT BY THE LIGHT OF THE OFF PANEL LATERN, WE SEE GULL AS HE STANDS FACING US, ROUGHLY HALF FIGURE. HE HAS TUCKED THE SMALL AMPUTATION CASE UNDER HIS ARM, LEAVING HIS HANDS FREE. WITH ONE HAND, HE GRASPS NETLEY’S VISIBLE HAND BY THE WRIST, QUITE GENTLY, AND RAISES IT, PALM UPWARDS, INTO VIEW. WITH HIS OTHER HAND, HE GENTLY PLACES THE COLD LENGTH OF THE LISTON KNIFE UPON NETLEY’S PALM, GIVING THE COACHMAN THE BLADE AS IF HE WERE A KINDLY GRANDPARENT DISPENSING TREATS ON CHRISTMAS MORNING. AS HE DOES THIS, HE STARES INTO OUR EYES AND SMILES BENIGNLY, HIS EYES TWINKLY WITH AMUSEMENT.
GULL: So, Netley…
GULL: Left to right.

PANEL 5.
NOW WE ARE RIGHT BEHIND GULL, SO THAT WE CAN PERHAPS JUST SEE A LITTLE OF HIS HUNCHED SHOULDERS OR A LITTLE OF HIS TOP HAT ENTERING THE PANEL ON THE LEFT, HIS FACE NOT VISIBLE TO US HERE AS HE STANDS THERE EMOTIONLESS AND SILENT AND OBSERVES THE PROCEEDINGS. FACING US AND GULL IN THE IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND IS NETLEY, ROUGHLY HALF FIGURE. HE STANDS, RATHER STUPIDLY, WITH THE LISTON KNIFE RESTING ACROSS HIS PALM, THE LANTERN STILL HELD IN HIS OTHER HAND. HE DOES NOT LOOK AT THE KNIFE. HE JUST STARES UP INTO GULL’S OFF PANEL EYES WITH A LOOK OF STUNNED DISBELIEF. GULL DOES NOT MOVE, SPEAK, OR DO ANYTHING TO LESSEN NETLEY’S DISCOMFORT. LOOKING BEYOND NETLEY, IN THE BACKGROUND AT THE EDGE OF OUR CIRCLE OF LANTERN LIGHT WE CAN SEE POLLY NICHOLS LYING THERE ON THE GROUND EXACTLY AS GULL LEFT HER, HER BLACK BONNET LYING IN THE DARKNESS TO HER RIGHT. IN THE FOREGROUND, NETLEY JUST STARES AT GULL AS IF HOPING THAT THIS IS A MISUNDERSTANDING, AND THAT HE WILL BE GRANTED SOME LAST MINUTE REPREIVE. NONE IS FORTHCOMING.
No Dialogue.

PANEL 6.
SAME SHOT, ONLY HERE NETLEY HAS TURNED HIS HEAD TO LOOK BACK OVER HIS SHOULDER AT THE BODY OF POLLY NICHOLS, THERE IN THE BACKGROUND. HE STILL HOLDS THE KNIFE USELESSLY ACROSS HIS PALM, SEEMING HARDLY TO DARE TO CLOSE HIS FINGERS AROUND IT. HE GAZES INTO THE BACKGROUND, STARING AT THE BODY GULL HAS ASKED HIM TO CUT THE THROAT OF. GULL, IN THE FOREGROUND, DOES NOT MOVE. NETIHER DOES POLLY IN THE BACKGROUND.
No Dialogue

PANEL 7.
CHANGE ANGLES. WE ARE NOW DOWN BY POLLY NICHOLS, SO THAT SHE LIES THERE WITH HER HEAD TOWARDS US. MAYBE THE BLACK BONNET IS VISIBLE, THERE ON THE COBBLES SOMEWHERE TO HER RIGHT, UP IN THE FOREGROUND. OUR ANGLE IS QUITE LOW HERE, AND AS WE LOOK UP PAST POLLY WE CAN SEE THAT JOHN NETLEY HAS TURNED AWAY FROM GULL AND IS WALKING SLOWLY AND CAUTIOUSLY TOWARDS US AND THE BODY. HE LOOMS OVER IT HERE, AND HAS THE LISTON KNIFE IN HIS RIGHT HAND, RAISED ACROSS HIS BODY SO THAT THE KNIFE IS OVER HIS LEFT SHOULDER IN PREPARATION FOR A LEFT TO RIGHT SWEEP OF THE BLADE. HE HOLDS THE LANTERN IN HIS OTHER HAND, AND HIS FACE IS A SWEATY RICTUS OF CONCENTRATION AND TERROR AS HE TIMIDLY ADVANCES UPON THE DEAD WOMAN. HE LOOMS OVER HER HERE, THE BLADE TREMBLING IN HIS HAND AS HE PREPARES TO STRIKE. LOOKING BEYOND HIM WE CAN SEE THE DARK FIGURE OF GULL IN THE BACKGROUND, JUST STANDING AND LOOKING ON, HIS FACE INVISIBLE IN THE SHADOWS, HIS PRESENCE INDICATED ONLY BY A DARKER BULK AGAINST THE DARKNESS SURROUNDING HIM.
No Dialogue.

PANEL 8.
SAME SHOT. NETLEY MAKES A WILD SWIPE WITH THE BLADE ACROSS POLLY’S THROAT. AS HE DOES SO, HE TURNS HIS HEAD AWAY AND CLOSES HIS EYES. THE LANTERN LURCHES WILDLY IN HIS FREE HAND, AND THE SHADOWS LEAPS LIKE AN ASYLUM GYMNASTICS TEAM. THE SLASH ACROSS HER THROAT KNOCKS POLLY’S FACE TO ONE SIDE A LITTLE HERE, AND A FEW DARK SPECKS OF BLOOD FOLLOW THE BLADE IN ITS UPWARDS ARC AFTER IT HAS TRAVELLED ACROSS THE THROAT. GULL STANDS MOTIONLESS IN THE BACKGROUND, LOOKING ON INDULGENTLY AS NETLEY BOTCHES THE FIRST CUT.
No Dialogue.

PANEL 9.
A SIMILAR SHOT NOW, IN THAT WE ARE STILL DOWN NEAR THE HEAD OF THE BODY. GULL HAS WALKED ACROSS FROM THE BACKGROUND HERE AND IS KNEELING DOWN TO INSPECT THE WORK THAT NETLEY HAS DONE. HE HOLDS POLLY’S CHIN, LIGHTLY AND FIRMLY BETWEEN THE FINGERS OF ONE HAND, TILTING HER HEAD SLIGHTLY THIS WAY AND THAT AS HE INSPECTS THE WOUND ACROSS HER THROAT. WITH HIS FREE HAND, HE REACHES OUT ABSENTLY BEHIND HIM, PALM UP, NOT LOOKING AT NETLEY AS HE ASKS NETLEY TO GIVE HIM THE KNIFE, BUT KEEPING HIS INTERESTED DOCTOR’S GAZE UPON POLLY’S THROAT WHILE HE SPEAKS. LOOKING UP BEYOND GULL AND POLLY WE SEE NETLEY, STANDING TREMBLING IN THE NEAR BACKGROUND. THE LANTERN STILL HANGS IN ONE HAND AS HE LEANS WEAKLY AGAINST THE WALL, AND PERHAPS HE RAISES THE HAND HOLDING THE LISTON KNIFE TO HIS BROW, WIPING THE SWEAT AWAY. HE LOOKS TOWARDS GULL WITH SICK HORROR AS HE DOES THIS. WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE COACH MAN WHILE HE INSPECTS POLLY NICHOLS’ CORPSE, GULL HOLDS OUT HIS HAND AND ASKS FOR THE KNIFE.
GULL: Oh, Netley…
GULL: I fear that you will never be a surgeon. See..the blade’s glanced off her collar-bone.
GULL: Ah, well, ten. Give it here. Give me the knife.

"There oughta be a law!""There already is, m'lud."

T his post relates to both the courtroom sketching I've been showing over the past ten days and my post of feb 25 about why on a comic book page the lettering should be done first. There are five stages in this sequence. I can't recall now why I would have gone to the trouble of making copies as I was going along. There must have been a presentation at the college coming up, but I don't rememeber ever using these for such a purpose. Stage one is the lettering, with just enough of a sketch to get the composition clear in my head. Click on each for a legible view.



There's a stage missing, as I have relettered the page to get a better descending rhythm to the balloons, and also altered the angle of approach slightly to make a deeper pictorial space (though you probably can't tell that from the scribble above). This was to be the first page of the final volume of Bacchus, so I was prepared to spend more time than normal to make sure it worked well. The main figures also look like they've been placed by me. I'm still happy with the composition here. Pete Mullins has gone in over my rough, added all the foreground figures and thoroughly worked out the perspective.



Next, I've pencilled and inked Bacchus and the other principal figures. There was to be a standing figure in the far corner, but I've decided to eliminate him.



Pete inked everything else



Then the page went to Anne for cleaning up, which in my studio was usually a lot of work and included such things as whiting the point on the balloon outline where the tail joins it. Since the balloons were drawn first it was usually wise to leave the tails until we knew exactly where the figure was going to be. You can follow that process above.



This appeared in Bacchus #16, which was (without checking) august 1996, before I got into the court sketching work. Perhaps Pete was already doing it and I thought it a good idea to take advantage of his experience. That would have been the reason I gave him so much to do on this page.

******
p.s. at the time of posting this, Blogger is having problems with pictures. I see that my photo in the sidebar has disappeared for instance, and the system won't let me upload any new pics. This one is already in the can and the pictures are working at my end. Any problems let me know. This will be a pretty pointless sort of post if the images have all gone AWOL.

The Villains in my Home Town. part 7.A very sad case

A nswering the customary occasional summons from Channel Ten news, I arrived in court to find my pal Pete Mullins already setting up to sketch the case of the day for Channel Seven. So I sat down next to him and we chuckled to ourselves. It was like we'd just moved the studio down to courthouse. It only happened once. I think Pete was much more comfortable back at the tv station working out the animations for the weather forecast, all those fluffy clouds roiling about behind the guy, or lady, in the suit.

This one was an extremely sad case. A girl aged nineteen was on trial for aiding the suicide of her boyfriend. It was to have been a double suicide. The pair injected themselves with battery acid and heroin and slashed themselves with razor blades. Somehow police were alerted and found them in time to save the girl, who survived and needed 109 stitches to heal her wounds.



As the news programs have different airing times, I was able to tape both.




All I can say is that if our dawings looked that different it's a good job neither of us ever had to identify a villain in a line-up.



Pete and I were impressed with humanity of the court. The girl was given three years probation. The judge said: "Where two disturbed young people enter into a suicide pact, the survivor must be seen as a victim rather than a person guilty of serious misconduct."

******

Bob at Four Realities reviews Bryan Talbot's Alice in Sunderland, and cheerfully invokes my slogan: 'It is a graphic novel, Percy'

The Villains in my Home Town- part 6.

O f all the villains I drew for the TV News over a two year period, there was one that could be called a celebrity villain. He was one of those crooks of Irish descent that Australians have enjoyed glorifying, in a line from Ned Kelly on down. The media had given him a moniker:
"Dubbed the Postcard Bandit, media reports in the 1990s said that Brenden Abbott sent postcards of his travels to the police who were chasing him. But the "postcard bandit" story was a media invention. The "postcards" were photos from a holiday Abbott took with another prison escapee, Aaron Reynolds, in 1989/1990, including an infamous picture of Reynolds outside the Dwellingup police station in Western Australia. While Reynolds was arrested within weeks, Abbott went on to establish himself as a professional fugitive, using self-taught skills in make-up to create convincing disguises, computers to create false IDs and electronics and weapons to dodge alarms and rob banks" (Wikipedia)



"Abbott escaped from custody several times using various means. On November 24, 1989, he made uniforms that resembled prison guards' at Fremantle Prison assisting his escape, and in 1997 he escaped with four other dangerous criminals from Sir David Longland Prison in Brisbane, under a hail of gunfire from an external accomplice, after sawing through cell bars and cutting through four external perimeter fences."

I'm not sure whether that jailbreak was related to the other one I illustrated (see part 2, 11 april).
"Abbott has been on the run three times, for six months in 1986/1987, and most famously as Australia's Most Wanted Man from 1989-1995 (five and a half years) and from 1997-1998 (six months). He was eventually caught in the Northern Territory in 1998 and is presently serving a 23-year sentence in Queensland for bank robbery and the 1997 prison escape."
I told the story in After the Snooter of how I was supposed to be on standby to run into town and sketch him in the courthouse when he was finally captured and brought into Brisbane for arraignment, with crowds packing the sidewalks to get a look at him. I dropped the ball on that one and was awol when the call came through, but I did get to draw him when his trial came up a few months later (see above). I just regret that it was a somewhat lacklustre effort. The court was crowded, security was tight, and I couldn't get close enough to do the kind of character sketch I had done well on a few previous jobs (and would still do on a few later ones).
However, note the big yellow cage with the bulletproof glass. I had already drawn this on one occasion, for which I failed to tape the News program and have no record of it except the illustrated anecdote in the Snooter. The camera zoomed for a close-up of Abbott, which isn't much of a drawing:



and of the judge, which is even less worthy of scrutiny.



In fact, it even zoomed in on that godawful figure on the far right.

Abbott was further glorified in a TV movie (IMDB), titled The Postcard Bandit, which is on Dvd. I haven't seen it.
There's at least one book about him, reviewed here in Dec 2006.
"I have to dips me lid to Derek Pedley for conducting interviews with Brenden Abbott without ending up as his cellmate. WA & QLD journalists will know that conducting interviews with prisoners in these two states is fraught with danger, as it can easily be defined as illegal on the whim of the authorities.
The handsome happy snap (1 of 2 photos on the cover - perhaps a before and after photo?) on the cover and the subtitle, belie the tale behind the cover, of a beleaguered life of a kid from a struggling lower-middle class family, dissatisfied with his lot, and going for the lucky dollar in fine colonial tradition of battlers, cops & robbers."

And being securely locked up hasn't kept him out of the news: Fears as 'Postcard Bandit' seeks hearing--September 18, 2006
"NINE years after his prison break, authorities are so concerned about the security risk Brenden Abbott still poses they are hesitant to take him out of prison for court appearances. Abbott, 44, is appealing a decision by Queensland Corrective Services to reject his application to cut his 25-year sentence by a third for good behaviour..."

"At his age, his prostate needed all the statistical support it could muster"

M y pal Chalky White asked me to remind you that: "The new issue of the long running Australian anthology DeeVee is listed in the current Diamond Previews catalogue. This stand-alone special features 'tales of spiteful romance' including a brand new Playwright story illustrated by Eddie Campbell plus The Fat Sheila Hit Me, the crime story he illustrated to crime author Peter Doyle's script. Also features work by Jeffrey Brown, Mandy Ord, Jason Paulos, mr j and the pick of current Aussie cartoonists. We're listed under the Top Shelf section and the order code is Diamond APR074012."

The original Deevee was a comic book anthology out of Brisbane that ran for fourteen quarterly issues 1996-2000, during the same period as my Bacchus monthly. Appearing in all of those issues was my serial that became How to be an Artist. Since then the guys, White, Evans and Best, have put out three specials in 2001, 2003 and 2005. In each of these White and I have been developing a new serial titled The Playwright. Thus this new issue offers the fourth part, six pages long, of this intriguing serial. It's all about a chap who writes for stage and tv and has some very tortured sexual frustrations. I established a style for the strip which was supposed to save me time but turned into a special feature of the job, upon which I lavish far too much attention. I blow up details on the photocopier until the pen lines look fat and monstrous and raggedy, then I draw in details on the copy using the finest possible rapidograph. here's an example from the second story in the series, from the hilarious jogging page. There will be more along the same lines in the new story. And I hasten to add that the parts of this serial are not really sequential and can be read in just about any order as they tend to circle around the theme and the character rather than advance in a conventional linear manner..
Also in the new Deevee will be the complete The Fat Sheila Hit Me, a true crime story which I illustrated for an exhibition at the Justice Museum in Sydney. the whole story of that is in the link. This is the moment when she actually hits him:



As you can see, the art turns very savage here. the original was blown up large on a wall. I expect it made an impression.

Finally, here's the cover:


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Interesting connecting links:
My pal John Coulthart posts about Talin’s proposed monument for St Petersburg (which would have been 100 m higher than the Eiffel tower). Follow the ‘dead monuments’ link at the foot to his earlier post mentioning ‘the degraded sculptures made by Igor Mitoraj’ and my pal Nathalie’s link in the comments to a beautiful photo of that artist’s Head of John the Baptist on her own blog.

The Villains in my Home Town- part 5.

O f course, I do know that the ear on the sketch shown yesterday is too far back on the head (not that anybody has mentioned it). 'Sketching' is the right word for it. I presume everybody gets that these things need to be produced quickly and there's no time to fix things. To fix that ear would require starting over. I'd be slopping away with those markers, the thin paper warping under my attack (I can see where it warps in yesterday's pic for example) with my eye on my watch the whole time. My picture was needed for the five o'clock news spot, so that meant a three o'clock deadline. I preferred to wrap it up at the courthouse and hand it to a Channel Ten person so I could go home and work on something else with a clear head. On occasions I'd take it home with me, and I'd always worry it to death before sending it to the tv station in a taxi. Then I'd sit down to watch the program not knowing whether it got there on time.

With the trial I'm showing today, I watched the News that night ten years ago to find the picture of the villain wasn't used. I suspected they may have misplaced it or not known it was under the other two pictures, though if there was more than one drawing I always put a cover sheet at the top itemising the contents of the folder. However, this one's a good example of all the other stuff I would try to include, such as an overall view of the courtroom:



From which they were able to get a close-up of the judge. I'd always wince when I'd see a detail enlarged that much.



I also threw in a profile shot of the Queen's Counsel, who seemed to me to be saying important things. They zoomed in on his hand and you could see all the fibres in the paper:



Also, this trial ran for a few days, so they wanted a bunch of stuff and for all I know they may have used the villain on another day and I just missed it. But by this time I had seen the possibility of a series of anecdotes to run in my Bacchus comic book, which then were caught up in the narrative thrust of the book that would become After the snooter. So I drew him in there from memory.
He was on trial for the murder of his wife because he thought she was having an affair. The proceedings were brought to a halt during the jury selection process because the accused seemed to be opening a dossier on each member. The jury were sent out while the Judge discussed the matter with the barrister representing the accused, who explained that the accused meant no harm by it and then by means of a quick word in his lughole told the guy stop doing it forthwith.