Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

Product Information

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. it deserves. With your contribution, you'll gain access to exclusive newsletters, editors' recommendations, 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. 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).

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

I am a True Crime enthusiast. I’m one of those weirdo’s that will come out with “interesting” facts about serial killers, spree killers, or cults during a dinner party. I will proudly press my rather age worn and well-read copies of Douglas & Olshaker’s “Mindhunter” or Ressler & Shachtman’s “Whoever Fights Monsters” into the hands of anyone I can convince to read them. But the book that seems to spend more time in the hands of my friends than actually on my shelves, is Deviant by Harold Schechter. Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done received three Ringo Awards at a ceremony in Baltimore on October 29, 2022. 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. I’ve seen documentaries on Gein before so I was familiar with most of the grisly details in this book, but there were some interesting new aspects that Schechter introduces for the reader to consider. Like whether Gein truly was insane given that his murders, particularly the last one, Bernice Worden, shows definite premeditation, and he got away with his crimes for many years before eventually being caught. He also comes across as very careful with his words in the interviews and not being declared insane at his trial would’ve meant going to the chair instead of being confined to a mental institution. He was certainly mentally ill but insane, as in not in control of his actions? Hmm… 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.Gein is in a unique position to be explored as a character, something that Powell and Schechter seem to be well aware of. His crimes involved killings followed by revolting and bizarre acts with human bodies that ranged from necrophilia to wearing skin suits and masks made of real human skin.

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

Schechter and Powell have created something spectacular and horrifying. Their well-researched and narratively-engrossing depiction of Ed Gein & his crimes evokes a range of responses, from pathos and humor on one end to revulsion and horror on the other. 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. In Chapter 11, Professor O’Hara explains your theory regarding the possibility that Gein’s mother had become a sort of deity to her son. If taken as a metaphor for Gein’s deranged mind, the effect is such that we do not feel intimidated, yet, if taken as proof that Gein’s was not something peculiar, that his was not a case never to be repeated, this means that he was simply acting out a primordial need that is part and parcel of humanity (or, at least, of part of humanity). Your theory, so it seems to me, destabilizes our preconceptions of what a serial killer is. Is our idea of progress and civilization, something we derive from ancient Greece (with its us-civilized and them-uncivilized dichotomy), a blatant lie we tell ourselves? 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. What’s true here is that these fictional characters tend to color Gein’s own history as being as terrible as their own, which might create the expectation that Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? will be a splatter fest that gore-hounds will appreciate more than anyone else. That is not the case.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? - IGN

Given the stomach-turning nature of Gein’s misdeeds, Powell worked hard to artistically walk the “fine line between exploitive and horrific.” Among his nonfiction works are the historical true-crime classics Fatal, Fiend, Deviant, Deranged, and Depraved. He also authors a critically acclaimed mystery series featuring Edgar Allan Poe, which includes The Hum Bug and Nevermore and The Mask of Red Death. I trust as a society, we’re doing a better job of identifying at risk people and giving them the help they need as a child. Gein was obviously a disturbed person but I think was a product of his upbringing. The book is interested in presenting the horrors of Gein’s case as coming from beyond the gruesome and the macabre. What’s terrifying here is Gein’s childhood, the abusive family environment he endured, the invasive sexual repression, and a uniquely American obsession with violence.As with the original book that this is based on, “Did You Hear About What Eddie Gein Done?” doesn’t just tell the story of Ed Gein’s crimes, it also details the childhood and upbringing that in no small way shaped the man that became what the press would term the “Plainfield Butcher”; and this book is a condensed but relatively faithful retelling of Schechter’s brilliant book Deviant (there are some minor changes to make the story work better in GN format) which is brought to life by Eric Powell’s unique and masterful artwork. 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.’