Moore's approach to narrative generation here is exquisite - summoning up the long-dead ghosts of a whole cast of real individuals, he weaves a new history for their lives that they never led, imbuing them quite handily with Masonic credentials and theophanic visions.
A strange undercurrent runs beneath the work for its main character, which is both profoundly paranoid and uniquely misogynistic - believing that the future of the world, for it to happen, must see the dominance of men over women - and not just in a literal sense, but in a mystical one. This undercurrent provides much of his drive when he assumes the work and identity of "Saucy Jack", with all of his Masonic rambling and "double events".
The art in it is pretty gruesome, which is oddly fitting, given the nature of the narrative - something I observed early on was that "everyone in this is ugly". Even the prostitute victims, some of whom were historically beautiful women, are drawn in a scratchy and brutal style. There was only one panel amongst the whole work that I could say was legitimately optimistic in its portrayal of an individual.
On the whole, I really enjoyed this work, as it was something very different and very dark. Some of the murders, being quite horrific, made me squirm while I was 'reading' through them, so - bravo. Mission accomplished.
The whole thing ties up very neatly in an ending that I can say is uncommonly satisfying, and the various 'visions' that show up throughout the work, hinting at an inevitable future yet to come, weave themselves into that ending and somehow give it even more power - by hinting that, perhaps, Jack was not quite as insane as we all thought.
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