The Illustrated Jack the Ripper

by Gary Reed

Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Liz Stride, Cate Eddowes, Mary Kelly...names immortalized for over 100 years. Not because of great deeds or noble acts or grandiose actions, but because they were prostitutes trapped in the cesspool of London, the jewel of the world's cities. Because they were victims...victims of a madness that struck the foggy night with gleaming steel. They were the food that fed the legacy of the greatest killer of all time...Jack the Ripper. The Illustrated Jack the Ripper is a survey of the information known about the most infamous killer of all time, Jack the Ripper. Included here are brief looks at the official victims, suspects, background on the area of Whitechapel, and more, including some official photographs of the time period and newspaper articles. This short excursion provides a concise yet comprehensive look a killer who has never been caught. A perfect introduction to the complexities of the serial killer who has fascinated criminologists and mystery buffs for over a century. Mark Bloodworth adds a number of sequential art pages, conveying a dark and sinister look to his art as each of the victims is portrayed in their final moments with Jack. The script and text writing by Gary Reed, known for his work in bringing historical and literary works to graphic novel formats, is succinct yet maintains the edge he is known for.

Genres: History

54 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2008

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Gary Reed was a prolific comic book writer and publisher. He was formerly the publisher of Caliber Comics and Vice President of McFarlane Toys.

Also wrote under assumed names (including Brent Truax, Kyle Garrett, Randall Thayer).

Reviews

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite a book and not quite a comic, The Illustrated Jack the Ripper is a happy marriage of both. It features numerous written passages discussing various facts and theories and other pages done in comic book style. It also has reproductions of actual newspaper drawings and mortuary photographs from the era, which are a real treat and worth the price of admission alone. Like many people, I have long been a sucker for the whole Jack the Ripper thing. There is a real mystique, and the fact that it is virtually unsolvable means that we'll never tire of studying it.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A credible look at the crimes known as the Jack the Ripper murders. Not quite a graphic novel, the narrative contains illustrations of the victims, photographs and period news articles. Very dark and sinister. Also, very difficult physically to read due to the size of the font.

[Hekil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this in Kindle Edition and I couldn't read it, the quality was horrendous. It is scanned and the image quality is bad, so even if you try to make it bigger there's some parts of the text that cannot be read and most of it is read with difficulty. I gave up on it and I had to buy the paperback version. The paperback version is a pretty good introduction to Jack the Ripper for those who want to get started, but really, stay away from kindle, nook and any ebook editions, they are not readable. I hope they fix that and make a decent quality digital edition.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible format for Nook! Do not buy!