Basket.

Well, that was a satisfying weekend.

I finally managed to find From Hell, and as a bonus, picked up Age of Bronze, Volume 2, as well. Both superb graphic novels, telling two enduring tales that have been endlessly retold and mythologised down the ages - the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper (1888-89) and the story of the sack of Troy, first passed down to us by Homer in The Iliad nearly a millenium before the birth of Christ.

In From Hell, Eddie Campbell and Alan Moore choose the "royal conspiracy" theory - that the murders were committed on the orders of Queen Victoria, after Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, laid with a prostitute and had an illegitimate child. To protect the dark truth from nation and empire, she ordered the royal physician, Sir William Gull, to eliminate the baby's mother and all who knew of the relationship. Inspector Abberline and a Victorian mystic investigate the case and nearly uncover the truth, but end up cynical, embittered old men in a health resort - while Gull takes brutality too far and is disowned by those for whom he committed such foul deeds.

That's the very simple sketch of it. A work of complex brilliance, From Hell is in my opinion Moore's best work after Watchmen.

Age of Bronze, on the other hand, is a retelling of the famous story of Troy's fall. Need I sketch it out again? Well, Trojan Prince Paris steals the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, Helen - reportedly the fairest maiden in the known world. Menelaus, understandably displeased, seeks his brother's aid in getting his queen back. His brother, of course, is Agammemnon, high king of Achaea, who assembles a massive army and the proverbial "thousand ships" to help his brother out and along the way, eliminate a powerful geopolitical rival. The Greeks fail to break through for ten long years, until the pretend to withdraw and leave the, again, proverbial Trojan Horse as a gift. The Trojans fall for it and are slaughtered by the hiding Greek army. The end - only Aeneas manages to escape and goes on, in legend, to found Rome.

We've all heard the story countless times and seen the movie to boot, with its Hollywoodesque lack of canon. Yet Eric Shanower brings the story back to life in his retelling, fleshing out effectively characters as diverse as the impulsive Paris, the scheming Agammemnon, the cunning Odysseus, the majestic but ultimately tragic Priam, and the skilful but surly Achilles. I'm working to getting all seven volumes.

And to end the weekend, the Simpsons' Halloween special Marathon. These two days have been kind to me.