Sorensen, Oystein :: Campbell, Eddie

From Hell Ch. 14 p.17

Artists: Eddie Campbell (Penciller) , Eddie Campbell (Inker) , Alan Moore (Writer)

2 Comments - 475 Views - 5 Likes

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Additional Images:

Blake�s painting "Ghost of a Flea", Tate Gallery Blake Exhibition October 2019

Ch. 9 p.15, without the Blake painting

Next Item:
From Hell Ch11 p.17

Artwork Details

Title:	From Hell Ch. 14 p.17
Artist:	Eddie Campbell (Penciller)
Artist:	Eddie Campbell (Inker)
Artist:	Alan Moore (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Interior Page
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	475
Likes on CAF:	5 6
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	8/30/2019
Comic Art Archive:

Description

The first panel in this page depicts parts of William Blake�s painting "Ghost of a Flea". The same panel was used in Ch. 9 page 15. Eddie Campbell cut it off from that page and used it again here. The painting, one of Blake�s most famous, apparently shows the ghastly soul of a murderer. Alan Moore explains the significance for From Hell in an article in The Guardian newspaper 30.08.2019, written in connection with an upcoming Blake Exhibition in Tate Gallery:
"As imagined by the Lambeth angel whisperer, the threatening and somehow smug abomination is theatrical in its demeanour, consciously performing for the viewer. Glossed by Blake, the flea is the transposed soul of a murderer trapped in a form that, while both bloodthirsty and powerful, is too small to become a mighty engine of destruction. Thus condemned, it struts its miniature domain and makes a swaggering display of cruelties that it can no longer accomplish. With nothing save an acorn cap to represent its drinking bowl of blood, with nothing but a thorn to serve as improvised prison yard shiv, this former demon is demoted and no longer dangerous. In its fallen state, more mischievous than malefic now, the has-been homicidal maniac is almost poignant.

Framed by threadbare curtains with a plunging star upon its painted backdrop, something in the monster�s owl-like stare and heavy posture led me to recruit it as a premonition of Sir William Withey Gull, the posited Jack the Ripper in From Hell, my work with Eddie Campbell."

PS: As for the Blake painting panel, it looks like Campbell used a photostat and then inked on top of it.

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About the Owner

	Oystein Sorensen Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	July 2005
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	NORWAY
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Michael 07
Member Since 2011

Posted on 8/30/2019

Fantastic !!! Where are you finding this one again? Huge congrats

David Blumer
Member Since 2018

Posted on 8/30/2019

Such an incredible collection of Campbell's amazing art! Just a little jealous over here! So, the first panel is actually drawn by Eddie based on Blake? I always thought those panels would be "borrowed"!

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