Thursday 16 July 2009

from Radiant City to Mega City One, the Architects’ Journal selects the greatest illustrated urban spaces. Top 10 comic book cities: #3 is From Hell’s London. We're in there behind Mega City One and Chris Ware's Chicago.
"The East End of Jack the Ripper’s London was a filthy, blackened, riotous place and Eddie Campbell’s artwork in From Hell captures the mood perfectly. It is among the most startling black and white comic book artwork you’ll find in print.
From Hell is quite a bit more than a pulpy slasher comic. Alan Moore’s script uses the Ripper murders as a device to unpick wider narratives centred on the social structures and secret histories of a vast imperial city on the cusp of modernity.
Strongly influenced by the psycho geographic musings of Ian Sinclair, much of From Hell dwells upon the mental impact cities exert upon their inhabitants. In particular, one chapter takes the reader on a tour of Hawskmoor’s London, each of the architect’s buildings rendered in a scratchy black and white manner that terrifies and delights in equal measure - much like the buildings themselves."
I've always been pleased with this panel from Chapter 1, which is not an important site in the story, but has a successful spontaneity as a drawing. The smoke has an overwhelming presence, like it's trying to drag the whole thing away."

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3 Comments:

Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

I accidentally delelted the above post and was able to reclaim it in a cut and paste but not matthew Adams' comment, which I'm retrieving here from my inbox:


Matthew Adams has left a new comment on your post "from Radiant City to Mega City One, the Architects...":

I suspect From Hell would have been a real bastard to complete, but the artwork is still some of my favorite, and a real inspiration in some of my own illustration. I very rarely read it nowadays (it took me six weeks to read the first time, I loved it but I have never completed reading it in full since) but i still spend hours pouring over each little panel.

Bloody brilliant!

16 July 2009 at 22:26:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Eddie Campbell said...

in three years, that's only the second time I've done that.

16 July 2009 at 22:27:00 GMT-5  
Blogger Unknown said...

Even before I read this post, I looked at that panel and though how good it was, because of it's spontaneity. It shows that you're practiced enough where your mind doesn't have to tell your hand what to do, it just has to tell your hand what it wants, and your hand does it. Does that make sens?

17 July 2009 at 09:07:00 GMT-5  

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