FROM HELL 5/33

W e encountered a minor logistical problem on this page of FROM HELL in that upon a thorough examination of whatever maps I had assembled, it was necessary for Gull and Netley to exit into the foreground rather than the backgound, as Alan pictured in the script.

FROM HELL. CHAPTER 5. PAGE 33. (words 1,158)
PANEL 1.
NOW ANOTHER NINE PANEL PAGE. IN THIS FIRST ONE WE ARE STILL LOOKING THROUGH GULL’S EYES, BUT HE SEEMS TO HAVE STRAIGHTENED UP SLIGHTLY, BECAUSE OUR VIEW IS DIFFERENT. THE BUTCHERED WOMAN IS STILL PROMINENT, DOWN TOWARDS THE BOTTOM OF THE FOREGROUND, BUT LOOKING PAST HER WE CAN NOW SEE NETLEY SOME FEW FEET AWAY. PERHAPS NETLEY HAS PUT THE LANTERN DOWN AND IS HERE SEEN REPLACING THE LISTON KNIFE IN THE AMPUTATION CASE, ABOUT TO PUT IT BACK INTO THE GLADSTONE BAG. HE GLANCES ACROSS AT US HERE AS GULL SPEAKS. IN THE FOREGROUND, GULL HAS RAISED HIS CUPPED HANDS FROM WITHIN POLLY’S STOMACH WOUND. CUPPED IN THEM IS A SHIFTING POOL OF BEAUTIFUL AND LUMINOUS WHITE MIST THAT ILLUMINES EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. PHOSPHORESCENT DROPLETS OF LIGHT FALL SOFTLY FROM BETWEEN GULL’S FINGERS, DRIPPING GORGEOUSLY BACK INTO THE MOTHER POOL OF RADIANCE STILL VISIBLE IN POLLY’S OPEN STOMACH. WE LOOK DOWN INTO THE LIGHT CUPPED IN GULL’S HANDS HERE, AND SHARE HIS ALMOST DIVINE ELATION. THIS IS SO UNEXPECTED AND BEAUTIFUL.
GULL (OFF): Oh.
GULL (OFF): Oh, look at it! It’s..
GULL (OFF): What is it? I’ve never seen anything quite like…

PANEL 2.
SAME SHOT. IN THE BACKGROUND, NETLEY IS DROPPING THE NOW CLOSED AMPUTATION CASE INTO THE GLADSTONE. AS HE DOES SO HE GAZES ACROSS AT US RATHER THAN AT WHAT HE IS DOING. IN THE FOREGROUND, GULL HOLDS OUT HIS CUPPED HANDS TO NETLEY, AS SEEN THROUGH GULL’S EYES. CUPPED IN THE HAND IS THE HOLY LIQUID LIGHT OF POLLY’S SOUL. FALLING IN SLOW AND TWISTING RIVULETS BACK TO THE POOL OF LIGHT THAT’S HELD IN POLLY’S STOMACH. THE LIGHT FROM GULL’S CUPPED HANDS EVEN LIGHTS UP NETLEY’S FACE IN THE BACKGROUND, LIGHTING IT FROM BENEATH. NETLEY’S EXPRESSION IS WIDE EYES AND OPEN MOUTHED. FROM THE LIGHTING, THE NATURE OF HIS EXPRESSION IS AMBIGUOUS. IT MIGHT BE RELIGIOUS AWE.
GULL (OFF): Look at it, Netley.
GULL (OFF): Can you SEE?

PANEL 3.
NOW WE REVERSE ANGLE SO THAT WE ARE LOOKING THROUGH NETLEY’S EYES TOWARDS GULL. GULL KNEELS BY THE BODY, ALMOST IN AN ATTITUDE OF PRAYER. HE HOLDS OUT HIS CUPPED HANDS TOWARDS US. THEY ARE FULL OF INTESTINES, THE SNAKE-LIKE ROPES TRAILING BACKWARDS TO THE OPENED WOUND IN POLLY NICHOLS’ STOMACH. THE BLOOD IS THICK UPON GULL’S FINGERS. AS HE LOOKS UP AT US ACROSS THE ENTRAILS HE HAS A WONDERING AND CHILDLIKE SMILE THAT IS GENUINELY TOUCHING. HIS EYES ARE BRIMMING WITH TEARS OF JOY AND HUMILITY.
GULL: Can you SEE it, Netley?

PANEL 4.
CHANGE ANGLE, PERHAPS WE ARE LOOKING UP SLIGHTLY, FROM PAVEMENT LEVEL AT GULL AS HE CROUCHES ABOVE THE BODY, TEARS STARTING TO ROLL ACROSS HIS CHEEKS AS HE STARES AT THE BODY IN CHILDLIKE WONDER. HE LETS HIS HANDS SINK BACK TO THE STOMACH WOUND, REPLACING THE HANDFUL OF GUTS WITH A GENTLE AND LOVING SMILE. HE IS CLEARLY MOVED BEYOND WORDS. LOOKING UP PAST HIM WE SEE NETLEY AS HE WALKS CLOSER TO US, CARRYING BOTH THE CLOSED GLADSTONE BAG AND THE LANTERN. HE LOOKS DOWN AT GULL WITH A GRIMACE OF UNCOMPREHENDING HORROR, BUT TRIES TO SPEAK AS CALMLY AND LEVELLY AS HE CAN. HE’S GOT TO GET THIS FUCKING LUNATIC AWAY FROM HERE BEFORE THE POLICE ARRIVE. THE PAIR OF THEM GOT TO BUCK’S ROW AT JUST AFTER THREE THIRTY, MISSING THE NIGHT WATCHMAN BY TWO OR THREE MINUTES. THEIR WORK THUS FAR HAS TAKEN ABOUT TEN OR TWELVE LONG MINUTES, AND NETLEY IS CLEARLY ANXIOUS TO BE OUT OF THERE. GULL STARES AT THE BODY, STILL ENGROSSED, AS HE REPLACES POLLY’S CUTS. HE HAS A SMALL FLECK OF BLOOD UPON HIS FOREHEAD THAT HE DOES NOT APPEAR TO HAVE NOTICED.
NETLEY: Uh..
NETLEY: Uh, yes, sir. Yes, I reckon I can.
NETLEY: Look, we ought to be goin’, sir…

PANEL 5.
PERHAPS WE ARE LOOKING DOWN FROM A POINT JUST ABOVE NETLEY, LOOKING DOWN PAST HIM AT GULL AS HE HELPS THE OLD DOCTOR TO HIS FEET. GULL SLOWLY AND RELUCTANTLY STANDS UP FROM HIS POSITION NEAR THE BODY. LOOKING LIKE ONE WAKING FROM A DREAM. HE STILL KEEPS LOOKING BACK AT THE BODY EVEN AS HE RELUCTANTLY STANDS UP, LEAVING IT BEHIND. NETLEY, IF WE CAN SEE HIS FACE, IS STARING AT GULL WITH A VERY WORRIED EXPRESSION. PERHAPS GULL PLACES ONE BLOODIED HAND UPON NETLEY’S SHOULDER TO SUPPORT HIMSELF AS HE PULLS HIMSELF UP FROM HIS KNEELING POSITION. SEE WHAT LOOKS NATURAL TO YOU AND DO ACCORDINGLY.
GULL: Yes.
GULL: Yes, of course. You’re right. Ought to be going. Yes.
GULL: Yes, but..

PANEL 6.
HERE, WE ARE DOWN AT PAVEMENT LEVEL. POLLY’S BODY LIES IN THE FOREGROUND, THE BLACK BONNET STILL RESTING UNTOUCHED BY HER RIGHT SIDE. LOOKING UP BEYOND HER WE CAN SEE GULL AND NETLEY AS THE LATTER GENTLY LEADS THE FORMER AWAY UP THE STREET. BACK TOWARDS BRADY STREET AND THE WHITECHAPEL ROAD BEYOND. AS GULL ALLOWS NETLEY TO LEAD HIM ALONG HE HAS HIS HEAD TURNED TO LOOK TOWARDS THE YOUNG COACHMAN AS HE SPEAKS. THEY BOTH WALK AWAY FROM US, LEAVING THE BODY BEHIND THEM, STILL AND DEAD.
GULL: Light, Netley.
GULL: Did you SEE?

PANEL 7.
CHANGE ANGLE. GULL IS HEAD AND SHOULDERS IN THE FOREGROUND OVER TO THE RIGHT OF THE PANEL. HE IS TURNING HIS HEAD BACK AWAY FROM US TO LOOK BACK TOWARDS THE BODY AS HE AND NETLEY LEAVE BUCKS ROW. WE CAN SEE A LITTLE OF HIS FACE, TURNED AWAY FROM US IN PERHAPS A QUARTER PROFILE AS HE LOOKS BACK TOWARDS THE CORPSE IN THE BACKGROUND. POLLY LIES ON HER BACK. LIGHT IS BRIMMING FROM HER STOMACH AND RUNNING DOWN HER SIDES TO POOL ABOUT HER IN A RADIANT PUDDLE. FROM WHAT LITTLE OF GULL’S EXPRESSION WE CAN SEE HE LOOKS HUMBLE AND AWE-STRUCK AS HE CASTS A LAST GLANCE BACK TOWARDS THE BODY.
GULL: She was full of light.

PANEL 8.
NOW WE HAVE CHANGED ANGLE SO THAT THE BLOODIED BODY IS NOW MOTIONLESS, SPRAWLED IN THE FOREGROUND. THERE ARE NO LIGHTS. IN THE DARKNESS, WE CAN’T EVEN SEE A LOT OF BLOOD. LOOKING PAST THE BODY WE SEE GULL AND NETLEY, HEADING AWAY FROM US RIGHT AT THE TOP OF BUCKS ROW. WHERE IT JOINS BRADY STREET. THEY ARE ABOUT TO TURN THE CORNER AND WALK OUT OF SIGHT, AND WE CAN REALLY ONLY MAKE OUT THEIR DISTANT FIGURES HERE BY THE WEAK GLOW OF NETLEY’S LANTERN. THE MAIN FOCUS OF THIS PANEL IS POLLY’S STILL, DEAD BODY, AN INCREASINGLY SHADOWY MASS IN THE FOREGROUND, THE BONNET LYING TO ITS RIGHT.
No Dialogue

PANEL 9.
THIS FINAL PANEL IS EXACTLY THE SAME SHOT AS LAST PANEL, ONLY HERE, GULL AND NETLEY ARE NO LONGER VISIBLE, HAVING TURNED THE CORNER INTO BRADY STREET AND TAKEN THEIR LANTERN WITH THEM. IN THE FOREGROUND, POLLY’S BODY LIES ALONE IN THE DARK, A BARELY DISTINCT SHAPE AS SHE SPRAWLS UPON THE COLD COBBLES.
No Dialogue

Mr Black, Mr White, encore!

H ere's another stage-by -stage image. In 2001 Beaux Arts magazine in Paris wanted a drawing of Alan Moore in the same way the Face in London wanted one of Johnny Depp, that is, in the 'From Hell style'. I used a photo of him I'd taken the previous year, from the 1999 session of Stanley Black meets Norman White,



during which Mr White was innately incapable of holding a grim face for two pictures in a row.




A clipped version of the photo went go to the Onion for their interview with Alan, the ink drawing went to Beaux Arts



and I saved a scan of the pencil stage to show in Bacchus #59.



Nothing ever went to waste at Eddie Campbell Comics.

*******

Chris Wisnia cracks me up.

Did you ever see this spoof of From Hell by Chris Reilly?

"There were so many cartoon characters in the bar at the time..."

I n reference to the court sketching stories I've been running here, my old pal Wayne Beamer at Newsarama says I should have been on hand to sketch the doctor who was arrested last weekend in Florida, dressed up as Captain America, since I drew two issues of the venerable superhero in 2004.
Heidi shows a good photo of him being frisked.
"On Saturday night, when a costume party full of medical professionals stopped at On Tap Cafe, police said Adamcik had a burrito stuffed below the waistband of his costume and was asking women if they want to touch it. When one refused, he allegedly took out the burrito and groped her.
The woman called police and, when they arrived, the officers wrote in their report “there were so many cartoon characters in the bar at the time, all Captain America’s were asked to go outside for a possible identification.”
Specially for Wayne, I'm posting this pencil sketch:


I drew it early in 2004 in order to prove I could draw the character and thus secure the two issue job. I think this has only appeared in print in the booklet for Swancon 2004 (Perth, Australia). A peculiar mishap befell this drawing when I went to spray it with fixative and picked up the can of adhesive by mistake (it was this drawing if memory serves.) When I later sold the original to a chap at the San Diego comic book convention I warned him that the preservation of the surface would be unpredictable due to the mishap and futhermore that I had worked it over with colour pencils in an attempt to rescue it. This resulted in a strange sugary-coated surface. Said purchaser was so amused that a professional of my standing could make such a muddle that he asked me to write the whole anecdote in pencil on the back of the drawing.
******

Speaking of Swancon, sci-fi author Tim Powers was the other principlal guest that weekend. I recall him telling me that he found out that the publishers of the Spanish (or another country's) translations of his novels had been inserting scenes for product placement, and that this was apparently standard practice. That is, they had a local writer on hand to add scenes into all the publisher's foreign novels where a character would go to the fridge and take out a coke, or whatever drink was contractually required.
******

My pal Breach, currently camped on our living room floor, has left this page open on my desktop. It's a round up of everybody who has been so far blamed for the Virginia Tech massacre, with a link for each one.
Cyncal-C Blog: The Blame Game. 24 april
"In case you were wondering who’s to blame for the Virginia Tech massacre, I’ve created a list this morning to keep track. Feel free to send in any that I’ve missed.
It’s fault of the Europeanization or nannyization of American behavior.
It’s Charlton Heston’s fault.
It’s the fault of immigration and/or asians.
It’s evil’s fault." etc. etc.
*****
Spiegelman Goes to College
Publisher's Weekly. Comics Week. April 24.
"Originally scheduled to deliver an outdoor lecture at Columbia University in early April, acclaimed comics artist Art Spiegelman instead gave the talk, "Comics Entering the Canon," indoors due to chilly weather, surrounded by neoclassical statuary in the rotunda of Columbia's Low Library. Considering Spiegelman's topic—how the comics medium is moving into the cultural mainstream—the move inside the library was appropriate."
*****
In other news:
Drunk deposits horse in bank for night. - Reuters. Wed Apr 25
"A spokeswoman for the bank said that aside from an undesirable deposit made by his horse inside the building, the 40-year-old account holder had not breached any house rules."

The Villains in my Home Town- part 9.

H ere are my quickest courtroom sketches. The real challenge in this game is that the thing isn't set up to make the sketcher's life easy; sometimes we feel like we're stealing it. This first was our parish priest as per my anecdote here. Judge Shanahan's assistant came and ordered me out as the judge would not tolerate journalists on the floor of his courtroom. The problem was that the accused was invisible from the gallery, and I figured my insignificant problem probably wasn't up for discussion. I infiltrated the circle of the accused's legal representatives long enough, perhaps eight minutes, to get a pencil drawing which I then coloured outside. He was found guilty of sexual assault upon young boys and was "being held in custody until sentencing on friday."


The judge is a pal of my father in law, and whenever Jack was in town and off to meet him for a drink I'd say "ask him about the time he had me thrown out of court." I don't know if he did ask, or if the judge is still around. For good measure I nipped up to the gallery, from where at least the judge was visible, and got a thumbnail of Shanahan in the corner of the same sheet of paper.The picture was caught obliquely on the corner of the screen before the camera zoomed in, so the focus in this image is weak.



With this other one I had even less time. The Harley Davidson store was robbed by six armed men and some $30,000 worth of parts was stolen. An arsenal of guns was found in the car of one of the accused. These two were arraigned before the magistrate and a trial date set. I had approximately four minutes to get them both. Presumably it's necessary for the faces to be obscured until the time of trial. I don't know how this one ended. The camera zoomed for a couple of good deatils, but we overlooked making jpegs of those.


****

My pal white showed me the new Jeffrey Brown that will be in the upcoming Deevee. There are forty panels per page for three pages. Here's an extract from the first tier of page 1. it gets sex-crazy after that.

The Villains in my Home Town- part 8.

F or some reason this one slipped through my memory net. Firstly, Pete Mullins just reminded me that we found ourselves in court together, twice and not once as I said last time (april 18). Secondly, this sketching job is the trial for the jailbreak that Abbott, the 'Postcard bandit', planned. They made their exit under a 'hail of gunfire', but three of his accomplices were nabbed fairly quickly. Abbott was on the lam until the middle of the following year (my april 17).



In fact this one got a great deal of coverage and there was an artist for Channel Nine there too. I never crossed paths with him again.



*******
In other news: CNN.com: Students attend school's first integrated prom April 23, 2007.
"ASHBURN, Georgia (CNN) -- Students of Turner County High School started what they hope will become a new tradition: Black and white students attended the prom together for the first time on Saturday.
In previous years, parents had organized private, segregated dances for students of the school in rural Ashburn, Georgia, 160 miles south of Atlanta."

Nude art exhibit too revealing for ISU officials. Monday, April 23, 2007
Associated Press
"POCATELLO -- Nude photographs included in an exhibit titled "God's Art" have prompted Idaho State University officials to cover windows at the art gallery featuring the display with paper and black drapes."

God bless America.

my best pal.

Photo of him taken yesterday by hayley campbell.


You may remember him from such books as After the Snooter in which this scene occurred:

It's a mystery.

This is how we should write about Hogarth: see Matthias Wivel's Essay on the Marriage a la Mode.
"However, Hogarth’s wealth of visual detail is only bona fide ‘chicken fat’ because it works on its own terms. Elder’s brand of the stuff is incidental and “noisy.” It is not only unrelated to, but often supplants the narrative as the main attraction of his stories (just as does the proliferating gags in Tati’s cinema, incidentally). As mentioned, this is not really the case with Hogarth, whose narratives almost invariably remain undisturbed by his piling on of the good stuff. But it is nevertheless clear that his visual inventions are also meant to be enjoyed in their own right, independently of the narrative."
etc.
It's clear that he has actually looked at the work.
And understood it.
(via Tom Spurgeon)
********
hayley campbell is home for a couple of weeks, so we had a bash at the house last night to celebrate her 21st. I didn't mention it in advance lest we suffer the same fate as that poor lass in England last week, 17-year old who invited her friends to a party via her Myspace blog;: Police arrest girl whose MySpace site led to £20,000 party disaster
"Rachel Bell, 17, was questioned by detectives then released on police bail, pending further inquiries, after she emerged from hiding to blame internet hackers for the £20,000 chaos, and to apologise profusely to her parents.
She said she was too scared to face her mother, Elaine, and father, Alan, who have been forced to rent temporary housing and are pressing for criminal charges against partygoers...
But although she spoke to her mother by phone, her remorse was undermined by the appearance of a message ascribed to her on a friend's MySpace site saying: "haaa ... well i hope u liked the party ... was fuckin wild like!!!! hmmm another lol???xx" (lol standing for laugh out loud).
Although her parents, who had gone for a caravan weekend with her sister and two brothers, had forbidden guests while they were away, she admitted asking round 60 friends and a couple of DJs.
Said the mother: "Rachel has got to take blame for organising the party in the first place. I can imagine she is in an awful mental state and fear she could do something to herself. But I don't know the full story and whether it was 200 or 300 people."

See, that's why I don't leave town any more.
*****
drjon in comments yesterday drew my attention to a flickr group posting then and now picrtures of London, of potential education to anyone following the same kind of thing in my Alan Moore's London series of posts. A commenter who left no name sent us to Reel Streets for a postgraduate course.
*****
When I saw drjon yesterday he gave me, for curiosity's sake, a copy of the glossy full colour brochure for an exhibition of Australian comics at the State Library Of Victoria (ended 25 Feb 2007). My foreign readers may be puzzled to find that I am the invisible man here. For 21 years I have been living and working in Australia, and for seven of those self-published my work out of Brisbane. I put out a monthly comic book for sixty issues and collected and published the first five printings of From Hell, and though I've now handed it over to Top Shelf, the number of copies out there is in the region of 200,000. One might conjecture that I could have been wedged into this paragraph:
"Few Australian publishers have successfully established a presence in America's 'direct sales' market, where comics are sold exclusively through specialty comics shops. A notable exception is Sydney-based Phosphorescent Comics, which, since 1999, has produced a range of superhero, horror and science-fiction comics for the North American market, and has repackaged some of its titles as 'graphic novels'.
It's a mystery.
*****
Pam Noles alerts me to this great blog titled Comics en extinción which has a multitude of older European Bande Desinnee album covers. Those Giraud Blueberrys make me want to tear up my attempts at drawing the American west.