True crime writer Harold Schechter teams up with true comics artist greatness Eric Powell to bring us “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”, a morbidly compelling account of the strange, sad life of Ed Gein. Sarjakuvan alkupuolella käydään läpi Geinin surullista lapsuutta, jota varjostivat alkoholismi sekä henkinen että fyysinen väkivalta. Geinin maailman keskipisteeksi muodostui hänen syvästi uskonnollinen äitinsä, jonka näkemykset eritoten naisista mahtoivat vaurioittaa nuorta mieltä entuudestaan. Even as a kid who grew up in the ’80s, the story of the 1950s ghoul was a topic in school,” Powell tells The Hollywood Reporter regarding his interest, maybe obsession, with the killer. “How there was really a guy they based Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre after. The scenario that created this sad figure who committed these terrible crimes has fascinated me ever since.” If you have lived in Wisconsin, as I have, you know the book Wisconsin Death Trip which makes a case for the state being one of the creepiest places on the planet (including chapters on monsters/serial killers such as jeffery Dahmer, and so on). But before Dahmer, in 1957, there was Eddie Gein, one of the most truly macabre people to ever walk the planet (oh, I know he has competition). And I admit, I have recently taken a (shallow, hypocritical) stand against the sensationalization of murder in my review of a graphic memoir, The Murder Book (Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell), a book about the author's obsession with True Crime, as I was at the same time reading Norman Mailer's Executioner's Song, about psycho-killer Gary Gilmore.

Ed Gein Graphic Novel Explores the True History of the - IGN Ed Gein Graphic Novel Explores the True History of the - IGN

It’s not an exaggeration to compare discovering the existence of Eric Powell’s new graphic novel “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?”* (Albatross Funny Books, 2021) to stumbling onto some lost, you’d-somehow-never-heard-of-it ‘true crime’ comics artifact co-created by bestselling In Cold Blood novelist Truman Capote and premiere EC Comics artist Johnny Craig. I was very curious about this graphic novel (or a comic, as I will refer to this book from this point on) can tell what wasn't already known, especially to me since I already read Harold Schechter's "Deviant", an in-depth look at Gein's case. But I was pleasantly surprised. The information was true to the case (and couple inconsistencies were explained in appendixes) and didn't invent any facts or information.I will always be interested in comic book/Graphic Novel retelling a of true crime stories, it’s combines one of my favourite topics with my favourite format and this is a stellar addition to the genre. I never felt the authors were condemning the existence of these stories, but they do point out that the 1940s and ’50s were a time in which violence was being presented in a more explicit manner and that it might’ve offered Gein a chance to fixate on something he would later put into action. It puts the magnifying glass on how Americans consume violence and just how available it is for consumption. It opens up even more avenues of conversation rather than reducing their existence into something inherently ‘harmful.’

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? eBook : Powell, Eric

This is a truly fascinating and disturbing story and it’s testament to Eric Powell’s skill that, while the subject matter is certainly grizzly and disturbing, it’s not delivered in a gratuitously sensational way. Don’t get me wrong, there are some sections of the book that are utterly horrifying, and Powell does a worryingly good job of making your flesh crawl through these moments, but they’re handled well, and without cheapening Schechter’s work. Of course, if you read the endnotes, you will see that they flubbed at least one scene involving a sexual assault of Gein as a child; while you would think such a claim would probably require attribution, the authors essentially say "there were lots of rumors and it seemed true, so we included it." For me, that was a killer--it directly confirmed my suspicions that the authors were less invested in giving an accurate account and more interested in titillation and voyeurism. (To be fair, I willingly read a book about a necrophile/serial killer so maybe this is all just projection). I believe Gein’s story continues to haunt us because he’s entered the realm of folklore,” answers Powell. “A real-life bogeyman who lived in a house of horrors. He’s become a truly American urban legend. A mid-century Vlad the Impaler.” En ole aina ihan varma mitä makaaberista true crime -genrestä pitäisi ajatella, mutta tulinpa kuitenkin lainanneeksi kirjastosta Harold Schechterin ja Eric Powellin albumin "Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done" (Albatross, 2021).

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Ed Gein was a wee bit coo coo for cocoa puffs. He murdered two women (though it’s likely the number is much higher) and robbed the graves of several other recently-deceased elderly women so that he could flay the corpses, turn the skin to turn into clothes and wear it so that he could “be” a woman/his mother. He also made furniture out of human remains, as well as other clothing items, like a belt made of nipples! He was eventually caught in 1957 and spent the rest of his life in a nuthouse. One of the greats in the field of true crime literature, Harold Schechter (Deviant, The Serial Killer Files, Hell’s Princess), teams with five-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist Eric Powell (The Goon, Big Man Plans, Hillbilly) to bring you the tale of one of the most notoriously deranged serial killers in American history, Ed Gein. The infamous Ed Gein is perhaps Exhibit A in the ongoing nature-vs.-nurture debate of violent crime. In a desolate farmhouse in Plainfield, Wisconsin, Gein's macabre crimes would inspire some of the most well-known and frightening ghouls of pop culture horror. However, as incomprehensible as it might be, Gein's story was terrifyingly real. Perhaps one of the most surprising elements of Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is how it approaches American violence. Gein is shown throughout the book as a troubled mind that’s also fascinated by extreme acts of depravity. We learn of his interests in the atrocities the Nazi’s committed in concentration camps, specifically in terms of the kinds of torture and sadism Germans inflicted upon their prisoners. There’s also a look at how the rise of pulp and horror stories and crime comics could’ve played a role in the desires Gein acted on later in life. Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?