Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

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One is the lurid and exploitative variant characterized by the pulp magazines Gein is shown reading. One of the greats in the field of true-crime literature, Harold Schechter, teams with five-time Eisner Award-winning graphic novelist Eric Powell to bring you the tale of one of the most notoriously deranged murderers in American history, Ed Gein. Initially there was Robert Bloch’s bestselling novel Psycho followed by Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic movie adaptation which introduced the world to Norman Bates, and then later emerged other incarnations like Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. If this was a Stephen King novella, sure, I guess it does the trick (even if it does rely on some hoary and problematic tropes as I will get to in a second).

But the grim details of the house of horrors he inhabited in tiny, unremarkable Plainfield are what made him one of the country’s most notorious maniacs and led to so many people patterning fictional killers, from Norman Bates to Leatherface to Buffalo Bill, on his story. Unfortunately, there are some people in whom the socialization process breaks down and who act out their darkest , most sadistic fantasies. Yet, once we reach the end of the novel, especially page 206, the only thing that’s left for us is disgust. 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.Gein has always bummed me out because it is VERY easy to trace his warped sense of self to the massive amounts of abuse he was subjected to from a very young age. Gein jäi melkein heti käpälälautaan, mutta hänen tilalleen saapuneet viranomaiset eivät olleet varautuneet siihen mitä he löytäisivät. Kaikin puolin surullinen sarjakuva perustuu aika tiukasti faktoihin, joiden pohjalta Harold Schechter on kai kirjoittanut elämäkerrankin. Schechter and Powell's true-crime graphic novel takes the Gein story out of the realms of exploitation and gives the reader a fact-based dramatization of these tragic, heartbreaking and psychotic events. This time Eric Powell's artwork is bathed in shades of gray, very appropriate, reminiscent of old black-and-white movies.

He was the quintessential American psychopath, and his story caused a media frenzy that loomed far larger than the human cost of his crimes. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. 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).La storia che racconta e mostra è quella di Ed Gein, uno dei più efferati serial killer americani, attivo nel Wisconsin già dagli anni 1950, e la cui vicenda ha ispirato (non lo sapevo! the trial and later events are a little truncated and rushed, though I like the additions in the appendices of interview excerpts with a psychologist and a neighbor.

Gein, as noted, was famously the model for Psycho’s Norman Bates, and the film marked something of a transition from the noir era of doomed but sympathetic petty criminals and killers who were evil but relatable to the modern model of film villains as unexplainable, alien psychotics. The few times we see Ed’s fantasy world, Powell uses harder lines and not as much shading (plus there’s a fun homage in there that I saw and was glad it was deliberate), which makes it clear that the reality inside Gein’s head was the place he wanted to be. Rating 7: A pretty comprehensive (and therefore deeply disturbing and depressing) history of Ed Gein and his crimes, though the format felt at times unnecessary. The bulk of his victims were already dead and buried before he performed his mutilations on their bodies. Look, it is very detailed about the horrible things this man did, but they lay out the story with appropriate breaks.It is a genre that is predicated on the suffering and victimization of others, transformed into a kind of ‘entertainment’ (though admittedly I don’t think that I’m, like, ‘entertained’ in the ‘wheee this is fun! You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. His newest book, The Mad Sculptor, (about a sensational triple murder at Beekman Place in New York City in 1937) will be published in February 2014. Unfortunately, there are–and will probably always be–people in whom, for whatever reasons of upbringing, neurological damage, etc. The second thing I think will remain burned into my brain like a Junji Ito 2-page spread is the author’s theory on Gein’s psychosis, manifested in Powell’s art.

Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2008 Best Painter or Multimedia Artist --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. The evocative art by Powell, done in his trademark black and white illustrations, is inked and shaded to perfection. Perfect for readers who enjoy the stories of the sensationalistic press of the 1930s and its crass exploitation of the details of horrific murders.I think that the biggest stumble for me with this book is that I’m not sure that being a graphic novel really added much to the story. Unchecked for a dozen years, Gein committed at least two murders and uncounted grave robbings, in which he then used the women’s skins to make himself a skin suit, facemasks, and other ghastly creations.