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RICK GEARY
A TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDERS |
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JACK
THE RIPPER
JOURNAL OF THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
1888-1889 |
| by Rick Geary |
Hardcover: 64 pages
NBM Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1561631248 |
$15.95
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| Geary's graphic
novel tells of the mystery and investigation of a Victorian murderer, using
black and white illustrations and tasteful displays to recount the Ripper
modus operandi and legend. Geary's story will satisfy fans of the graphic
novel format who appreciate seeing detective work illustrated. |
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From
Publisher's Weekly:
Rendering
the belching chimneys, puzzled bobbies and bewhiskered worthies of Victorian
London in brooding b&w panels, Geary revisits the legend of Jack the
Ripper in this stylish graphical novel. On the one hand, this is a 19th-century
police procedural: in examining the brutal murders of five prostitutes
in London's Whitechapel district in 1888, Geary recreates the scene of
each gruesomely surgical murder, annotating the evidence, the forensic
procedures of the time (some theories held that an image of the murderer
remained affixed to the victim's retina) and the eerily conflicting testimony
of witnesses. On the other hand, it's a deadpan pulp narrative in the form
of a trade comic book in which Geary's haunting drawings unite seamlessly
with his moody, well-researched text. As the atrocities mount, the story
tracks the public hysteria surrounding the murders, including journalistic
excess and rising anti-Semitism. Geary doesn't try to identify ``Saucy
Jacky.'' Instead, he taps the legend's powerful mystery and, in the process,
the period's social strictures and hypocrisies. |
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RICK GEARY
A TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDERS |
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THE
BORDEN TRAGEDY
A MEMOIR OF THE INFAMOUS DOUBLE
MURDER AT FALL RIVER, MASS. 1892 |
| by Rick Geary |
Paperback: 64 pages
NBM Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1561631892 |
$8.95
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| Rick Geary received
quite a bit of critical praise for his Jack the Ripper volume of A Treasury
of Victorian Murder, and rightfully so. The Borden Tragedy (the third volume
in the series), is no less impressive. Based on the famous 19th-century
Lizzie Borden double murder, this comic-book version of the event is supposedly
excerpted and adapted from the unpublished writings of an unknown woman
from the Borden's hometown of Fall River. |
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The narrator,
a friend of Lizzie Borden, is intent on finding out all of the facts behind
such a grizzly butchering. We are taken through meticulously researched
evidence, all stunningly illustrated by Geary, but Geary leaves us without
taking a strong stand one way or the other. As an extra treat, the back
cover includes a list of comparisons between Lizzie Borden and O. J. Simpson.
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From
School Library Journal:
[This
book is] adapted from an authenticated but currently anonymous memoir written
by someone who was at Fall River at the time of the Borden murders. The
dramatic and mystery-shrouded story of Mr. and Mrs. Borden's deaths by
hatchet during a time frame that would seem to indicate 30-year-old Lizzie
as the only possible murderer and of the contradictory physical evidence
that would seem to exonerate that same suspect is presented frame by frame,
with very few balloons attributing specific words to any of those involved.
The drawing style suits the subject neatly, extending the Victorian setting
into mood as well: Lizbeth Borden is depicted as pudgy and sour-faced,
the Bordens' maid looks as pinched and sickened as she had reason to feel,
Fall River's citizenry scowl up from the pages as clearly defined individuals.
Geary brings to this work years of experience creating fictional and documentary
comics for books and periodicals, including the National Lampoon.
While the parallel between Lizzie Borden and O.J. Simpson, drawn on the
back cover of the book, seems simplistic, it may serve as an appropriate
hook for readers unaccustomed to contemplating events outside their own
worlds. Because Geary has fit so many details of the case's facts and ambiguities
into just over 50 heavily illustrated pages, this should be an instant
hit in high interest/low reading collections.
--Francisca
Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
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RICK GEARY
A TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDERS |
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THE
FATAL BULLET
THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT
GARFIELD |
| by Rick Geary |
Paperback: 80 pages
NBM Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1561632287 |
$8.95
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| "First
rate. Superb as always."
--Publishers
Weekly
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"Subtly
expressive low-key wit. First-rate historical graphic novel."
--Booklist
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Geary explores
the first assassination of one of our presidents in the hands of an obsessive-compulsive
stalker, a deluded loser who thought his action would bring him national
glory. In this typically carefully researched and constructed story, Geary
parallels the lives of the President and the killer. They have striking
similarities. The fascinating element is how one went so wrong while the
other rose to so high a post even despite himself. Once again, beyond a
mere presentation of facts, the author surreptitiously unpeels for us a
bit of our national psyche.
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From Publishers Weekly
In this first-rate nonfiction
comics work, Geary examines the assassination of our 20th president, James
Garfield, murdered barely six months into his presidency by Charles Guiteau,
a failed lawyer and demented evangelist. Although the two men never knew
one another, Geary focuses on the peculiar similarities in their backgrounds.
Both hailed from the Midwest (Garfield from Ohio and Guiteau from Illinois)
and were devoutly religious, studied law and gravitated toward politics.
But the two couldn't have been more different. Garfield was honest, a brilliant
student, a decorated Civil War hero destined for distinction. Guiteau was
a misfit even as a child and ended up a deadbeat and a religious fanatic,
convinced that he was chosen by God for greatness. Geary's well-researched
account also documents how easy it was to gain access to, and the vulnerability
of, American presidents in the 19th century. Guiteau secretly stalked the
newly elected Garfield (who was given to strolling unguarded around D.C.
at any hour) and shot him from behind as he was about to board a train.
Geary also takes note of the woeful state of medical treatment at the time.
Shot in early July, Garfield finally died in September after suffering
through inept and painful attempts by his doctors to remove the bullet.
Guiteau was tried and hanged for the murder shortly afterward. Geary's
black and white drawings are superb as always in this work, a fitting follow-up
to his equally fine The Borden Tragedy.
Copyright
1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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| ALAN MOORE &
EDDIE CAMPBELL |
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FROM
HELL |
| by Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell |
Paperback: 572 pages
EDDIE CAMPBELL
ISBN: 0958578346 |
$35.00
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Amazon.com:
The mad, shaggy genius of
the comics world dips deeply into the well of history and pulls up a cup
filled with blood in From Hell. Alan Moore did a couple of Ph.D.'s worth
of research into the Whitechapel murders for this copiously annotated collection
of the independently published series. The web of facts, opinion, hearsay,
and imaginative invention draws the reader in from the first page. |
| Eddie Campbell's
scratchy ink drawings evoke a dark and dirty Victorian London and help
to humanize characters that have been caricatured into obscurity for decades.
Moore, having decided that the evidence best fits the theory of a Masonic
conspiracy to cover up a scandal involving Victoria's grandson, goes to
work telling the story with relish from the point of view of the victims,
the chief inspector, and the killer--the Queen's physician. His characterization
is just as vibrant as Campbell's; even the minor characters feel fully
real. Looking more deeply than most, the author finds in the "great work"
of the Ripper a ritual magic working intended to give birth to the 20th
century in all its horrid glory. Maps, characters, and settings are all
as accurate as possible, and while the reader might not ultimately agree
with Moore and Campbell's thesis, From Hell is still a great work of literature.
--Rob Lightner
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