FROM HELL 229
and narcissism, and in a few short years the representative of the free-thinking sexual
revolution has become one of its traitors, a media celebrity and crass misogynist who is
killed by one of his mistreated female fans. Crumb’s innovation in developing Fritz was
to combine a funny animal style associated with children’s comics (and famous feline
precursors like Krazy Kat or Felix the Cat) with increasingly adult content, fi rst provid-
ing his cute character with a swinger’s sex drive, and fi nally the arrogance of a decadent
movie star.
Like his creator, Fritz embodied contradictory qualities during a cultural transition:
on the one hand, both were children of the 1960s, indulging in the era’s experimenta-
tion with drugs and free love. However, along with Crumb, Fritz found himself oddly
placed at the heart of the moment, more a pre-hippie beatnik (Fritz, for instance, typi-
cally sports a necktie, not love beads) devoted to the Playboy philosophy rather than
genuine countercultural revolution, despite frequent scrapes with the oppressive law,
depicted (of course) as pigs. Often, he’s clearly an opportunist, enjoying the pleasurable
fruits of the hippie subculture but rarely subscribing to its politics other than through
a knee-jerk resistance to authority. In the end, both Fritz and Crumb seem among the
more incongruous icons of the era they nevertheless continue to represent.
In addition to the early collections already noted, the key stories featuring Fritz the
Cat have been reprinted many times, including in the volumes Th e Complete Fritz
the Cat (Belier Press, 1978), Th e Life and Death of Fritz the Cat ( Fantagraphics , 1993)
and in chronological sequence across volumes one through eight of Th e Complete Crumb
Comics (Fantagraphics, 1987–92). Even though he was put out of his (or his creator’s)
misery almost 40 years ago, Fritz remains one of the icons of underground comics,
rivaled perhaps only by Crumb’s long-living guru Mr. Natural.
Corey K. Creekmur
FROM HELL is a graphic novel written and meticulously researched by Alan Moore and
illustrated entirely in black and white by Eddie Campbell. It is based around the real-
life Jack the Ripper murders that took place in London in 1888. Although the police
fi le on the Whitechapel murders included 11 separate deaths, 5 of these are universally
agreed upon as the work of the same killer and are the subject of From Hell , which is
named after the address given on one of the letters sent to police claiming to be from the
murderer. Moore’s story names Sir William Gull (Queen Victoria’s royal Surgeon-in-
Ordinary and a high-ranking Freemason) and his coachman John Netley as responsible
for these murders, acting under direct instruction from Queen Victoria.
From Hell begins in London, 1884, with the secret marriage and child of Prince Albert
Victor and unsuspecting shopgirl Annie Crook. Queen Victoria fi nds out, has them
separated and places Annie in an asylum, instructing Gull to impair her sanity. Four
prostitutes, Annie’s friends, know of the aff air and try to blackmail the royal family, and
the Queen again enlists Gull to silence them. He begins by visiting London landmarks
such as the Hawksmoor churches and expounding on their mystical signifi cance to his
coachman, John Netley. Gull then proceeds to murder fi ve women: Mary Ann/Polly
