Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

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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. This comic book was remarkably readable. Very little was not taken from primary sources, and what wasn't taken from primary source was explained in the end notes with further explanations behind the reasoning afforded. What you got from reading this was not simply the history, but also an analysis of some of the reasoning behind the fixations that Gein developed. I left the book both knowing a great deal more about him, and also wanting to read Schechter's official book about the murders. That having been said? This book seems to summarize the events extraordinarily well. None of it felt like it was glossed over.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Albatross Review – Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? (Albatross

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. What Powell and Schecter accomplish is more akin to rumor than fiction. If fiction contains a spark of truth, "Did You Hear Eddie Gein Done?" finds its narrative in the flames. They bring you so close to the facts that you can feel the heat of reality off of them, and it stings. It is impossible to create a comic book that is literally true. You can present facts, photos, first-hand accounts, and primary documents, but the instant you start speculating, you are a storyteller. Harold Schecter is a true-crime writer whose 1998 book, Deviant, is considered the definitive text on the life and crimes of Ed Gein, “The Butcher of Plainfield.” Eric Powell is the creator of The Goon, a supernatural crime comedy known for its delectably vile violence and sacrilege. Though their chosen genres could not be more disparate, they share a slightly bent perspective, and the challenge of presenting the facts of Ed Gein’s abhorrent existence in a compelling graphic novel has produced a work that is singular and extraordinary. 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. The graphic novel draws from my deeply researched book Deviant. It is completely fact-based, with the exception of the professor of religion who, towards the end, offers a theory about the sources of Gein’s madness and who serves as a vehicle for conclusions about Gein’s psychopathology that I have arrived at since the publication of my book.

Powell is best known as the creator of the long-running Dark Horse series The Goon, and has also worked on titles like Action Comics, Swamp Thing and Star Wars: Tales. Schechter is a true crime writer who has penned nonfiction books like Deviant and The Serial Killer Files. All that aside, I know I’ll remember this book for 2 specific moments in particular. [No spoilers; even if you already know the true story, the artistic choices here deserve to be experienced fresh, so I’ll be vague. Also, the authors have a unique take on Gein’s psychosis and seeing their disturbing depiction of his inner thoughts is what really makes this book]. 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? This book, I came across in the library and just had to grab it. Ed Gein is a fascinating figure, the inspiration behind movies such as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacres. I went into the book knowing a very limited amount about him - partially due to the persistent folklore of a lampshade being made of human skin being a remnant of the Holocaust. Said lampshade, in spite of persistent rumors, has never been found to exist. The lampshade is in fact something that Ed Gein created, if rumors are to be taken as true... Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is a powerful meditation on the things that can make a person take the lives of others, and then go further. It’s a detailed and very smart take on True Crime that is interested in explaining the phenomenon that is Ed Gein. There’s horror, there’s pain, and there’s violence, but the point of it all is to consider just what it is that goes into the formation of an all-American killer.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? - Goodreads Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? - Goodreads

I am also a huge comic book fan, so when I heard that Eric Powell was producing a Graphic novel about Ed Gein in conjunction with Harold Schechter, it was like the stars had aligned. 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.”Powell and Schechter share writing duties but the art is all courtesy of the man who created The Goon, Powell himself. As stated, What Eddie Gein Done? looks at the life of the killer that many got to know as The Butcher of Plainfield, after Gein’s hometown. It goes from childhood to old age and it focuses on two big phases in his life: his upbringing with a strict, near-misanthropic but fundamentally religious mother figure, and the aftermath of his arrest for his many crimes, in all its dimensions. Gein has always been a fascinating case. In terms of body count (which, in the world of true crime, is the sexiest statistic, the equivalent of home runs in baseball), he was pretty much a dud, tallying a meager two killings. 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. Gein sewed suits of clothing out of the skins of dead bodies, made a belt out of nipples, ate his meals out of a bowl fashioned from the top of a skull, and performed a litany of other horrors. He was the quintessential American psychopath, and his story caused a media frenzy that loomed far larger than the human cost of his crimes. 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.

Ed Gein, The Serial Killer An Original Graphic Novel about Ed Gein, The Serial Killer

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.” Raised by a tyrannical, religious zealot and likely insane mother Augusta and drunken, violent father George, Schechter/Powell provide glimpses of scenes Ed would probably have seen in his youth which might explain his later behaviour, like seeing his mother butchering a pig and his father tanning leather. It’s a very grim life story and it’s not hard to see how damaging a life of paranoia and isolation could be to a person - Ed really had no chance right from the beginning. When I was a kid I remember hearing talk about how Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a true story. That there was a real Leatherface. I don’t remember what age I was but it was probably too early to be hearing about people being strung up in barns and skinned. I think much like the kids in the 50s who read the story in Life magazine, Gein became a real life bogeyman to me. It was really Harold’s work that got me interested in the family dynamic. He has explored that area of Gein’s life probably more than any true crime writer. We describe the isolated farmhouse in the book as an incubator for madness, and I think that’s a pretty accurate description for the abusive cycle this family put themselves through.

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The “Superhero” Trademark: how the name of a genre came to be owned by DC and Marvel, and how they enforce it 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. Of course, Ed Gein – lonely, battered, pathetic, almost pitiable, working his dark craft in an empty house on a frigid plain in central Wisconsin – was no Charlie Manson. He was as much a product of his time and place as Manson was of his, but it was a very different time and place. And that’s where Eric Powell, the endlessly gifted artist behind The Goon and the primary reason to buy this book, comes in. Schechter’s writing is perfectly competent and sometimes very engaging, and no one can fault him for having a poor grasp on the facts of the case, but he’s a true crime writer in the classic sense: a very plain and straightforward journalistic style, wordy and precise but rarely artful, and more reliable than inventive. This isn’t for the squeamish — in case the uninitiated casual potential reader doesn’t recognize The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reference explicit on the front cover portrait, I’d advise said reader to turn over the book to see the trio of human-skin facemasks hanging on Gein’s wall (in the special edition of the book, as seen in many places online and in the banner here) — nor is it for the rabid gorehound seeking exploitative splattery thrills.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? HC :: Profile :: Dark Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? HC :: Profile :: Dark

But it is not the solution that we should be looking for, rather what the matter entails. If society bears the burden of creating citizens, then society is always to blame for the rise of elements with antisocial and harmful tendencies. A beautiful option, this one, as it allows for the idea that by perfecting the education of men and women we can reach the goal of producing the best human beings that Earth could ever hope to give birth to. This was my last read of 2021, and it wound up being one of my favorites of the whole year. Schechter is a true crime writer and has written some fascinating books, including a biography of Ed Gein. That knowledge and research shines in Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?. Harold Schecter is an author that I've been meaning to read for ages. I was first recommended him due to the book that he wrote on H.H. Holmes - a book that currently resides on my personal library shelf but I've yet to read. I need to remedy that.

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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. In a way, this book was a bit of a first for me. I have read graphic novels before, but this was the first which had true events at its heart. And, with those events being truly horrific, I was interested to see how this subject matter would be handled in this genre. 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. Eric Powell—the legendary creator of comics like The Goon and Hillbilly—and Harold Schechter—the author of true crime classics including Deviant and The Serial Killer Files—are collaborating on an ambitious new graphic novel about one of the most notoriously deranged murderers in American history, Ed Gein. But those are fictional characters, and Eddie Gein is for sure NOT. He was a mentally unstable person abused by his mother and other people in his town, and eventually averted his attention to killing folks because...well reasons. But in this book they go into a deep dive. You'll learn about Eddie from birth to death, and while it's most certainly not painting him as a worthy person to be talked about, it shows who and maybe even hints to why he did what he did.