Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch

Wow was the reaction I had reading this graphic novel. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about a Jack the Ripper story done in black and white with red thrown in. I have found that I have some difficulty determining features and details when the stories are black and white. That was not a problem with this book.
The drawings were clean and crisp. The lines thin to allow the details to shine. The red accented the story without being garish.
Now, of course, no graphic novel can be good if the story is bad. This was set in the 30-40s. The main character was a young woman who worked for a paper (if I remember correctly she had inherited the paper). She took the role of crime photographer and ended up taking pictures of a Jack the Ripper copy cat. Through her pictures she was able to uncover some evidence about what the murderer was going to do next.
She runs into a man who claims the murderer is Jack the Ripper who is killing to stay alive. What happens from there is a series of nights of stakeouts and near misses. It wasn't a complete shock as to who the killer was but the ending had a little twist I didn't expect.
I highly recommend this for middle grade and up. It is a little violent in theme but the style is old fashioned so it doesn't feel violent.

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