You may not be familiar with the name of Robert Bloch, but you probably know his work: the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was based on Bloch’s 1959 novel of the same name. In fact, Bloch was a prolific writer (20+ novels and hundreds of short stories) and a member of the H.P. Lovecraft Circle. One of those stories was “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” published in Weird Tales in 1943.

 

Now Yours Truly has been published as a graphic novel, adapted by Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale with art by Kevin Colden. The story is set in Chicago in 1943 and principally follows Jenny Davis, a newspaper reporter, and Sir Guy Hollis, an English detective (complete with a monocle and handlebar mustache) whose father worked on the early Ripper cases in London. The Ripper is still murdering women and disemboweling them although, as one of the characters pointed out, he’d have to be in his 80’s. Unless, as is Sir Guy’s theory, he’s staying young with witchcraft, part of which involves the ritual murder of women.

 

This is the first issue in a series of 3, and it mainly introduces the characters: besides Jenny and Sir Guy, there’s a skeptical psychiatrist and the Ripper himself, who seems to be a human fly and doesn’t care for bright lights. It also lays the groundwork for a puzzle to be solved: the Ripper always paints a five-pointed star by the bodies of his victims, and Jenny and Guy independently arrive at the theory that, when traced on a city map, the points of the star will show them where the next victims will be discovered.

 

The story is not all that exciting in this first issue, but the art is great. It’s a throwback style based on stylized black ink drawings plus lots of creative use of screens, green shading, and occasional red highlights. This looks to be a very noir-ish series and the art is a good match for the period of the story (with lots of canted angles and strange perspectives), plus the screens remind me of half-tone illustrations in newspapers, which is also totally appropriate. Anyway, the series is off to a good start and I hope the action will pick up in future issues.

 

You can see a preview of Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper at http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/comics/565. | Sarah Boslaugh