From Hell, Chapter 14: Gull, ascending

[alicemacher]

From the collected TPB of From Hell. Script: Alan Moore, art: Eddie Campbell. 8.33 pages of 25.

The year is 1896. Sir William Withey Gull, former Royal Physician and (in this fictional account) Jack the Ripper, sits demented and dying in an asylum, his Masonic brethren having quietly committed him there under a false name some years before.





Gull experiences himself ascending, then descending back to the world and manifesting to the living in various times and places within the British Isles, past, present and future. Moore, in the chapter notes, details how most of these manifestations are based on actual accounts of these alleged paranormal events. (The identifying of these manifestations with the Ripper is, however, Moore's invention.)













Gull proceeds to inspire another couple of real-life serial killers, then appears in 1903 to John Netley, the simple-minded carriage driver who had been his accomplice in the murders of the five Whitechapel prostitutes. I'll just note that Netley, back in Chapter 4, had naively asked Gull if he'd sponsor him as a candidate for Freemasonic membership so he could advance in society. Gull, laughing, replied that if Netley followed all his instructions, he'd become part of Masonic history.







Gull experiences himself ascending to Heaven and beholding the great Masonic masters of the distant past. They point downwards, indicating that there's one last thing they wish him to see before he completes his ascent to the Godhead.









That last scene in Ireland, entirely Moore's invention, of course requires some explanation. Moore himself declines to spell it out in the annotations, but we can tease out the meaning from the following.

The names of the Irish woman's daughters match the names or nicknames of four out of the five women generally agreed to have been the Ripper's victims: Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. That leaves the final victim, Mary Jane Kelly. Moore does leave one clue in the annotations: that Kelly was also known to friends as Ginger and Fair Emma. In the novel, Inspector Abberline, supervisor of the Ripper case, has a platonic affair with a prostitute named Emma, who leaves him to "go away somewhere" before they can take the relationship any farther. The implication, then, is that Gull's fifth and final victim wasn't the Mary Kelly he was after. The real Mary got away, moved to Ireland (where, as a "ginger," she'd blend in) and named her children after her four murdered friends. Thus, Gull in his last conscious moment is revealed to have failed to finish his job. Does he in fact "clear off to Hell?" Maybe so...

Comments

[kamino_neko]

Redjac! Redjac!

I find it interesting that Campbell's rendition of Blake's Head of the Ghost of a Flea manages to be extremely accurate in some ways, but wrong in others (having the GoaF standing straight, rather than craning forward, and the tongue extending further forward (or perhaps being rounded) in the open mouth segment)... But that's just the kind of nerd I am.

[deathcrist2000]

That's not actually Campbell redrawing Blake. Like many of his works, Blake adapted the vision into a work of art.

[kamino_neko]

I don't know what you're getting at, here.

That is, in fact, Campbell redrawing Blake. The Ghost of a Flea painting seems to have simply been photocopied and pasted in (which I don't blame Campbell for doing, one little bit), but he did redraw Blake's earlier Head of the Ghost of a Flea drawing. It's obviously a redraw if you look at the original, and the version Blake is shown drawing in the segment.

[deathcrist2000]

My mistake, for some stupid reason I thought you were referring to the painting rather than the sketch. In my defense, I've literally spent all day walking around in (what could charitably be called) circles, sleep deprived, and with only two meals in my stomach.

[kamino_neko]

Yeesh. Any particular reason your day's been like that (if you care to share)?

[deathcrist2000]

Comic Con.

[deathcrist2000]

You know, I actually wrote a paper on From Hell a year or so back. Is it fine if I link it on the forum?

[alicemacher]

I'd certainly like to see it. (I can't speak for the mods because I'm not one, but I don't see why they'd object to your linking it.)

[deathcrist2000]

Well, all right.

[pyrrhocorax]

That was very interesting, thank you for sharing.

[lilacsigil]

A fascinating comic and one of my yearly re-reads. Along with everything else, I really loved the ending of hope and life for Kelly and the little girls with the dead women's names; and of course Gull's terror and banal ending even as he believes he is become God. (Also, apart from the other clues, her name is Mary Kelly, which is about as Irish as you can get!)