Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?

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The father dies in 1940 and a few years later Henry (perhaps killed by his brother), leaving Eddie happily alone with his mother. Ja niin siinä sitten kävi, että wisconsinilaisessa Plainfieldissa murhattiin loppuvuodesta 1957 kauppias Bernice Worden.

is an excellent, informative and enthralling summary of the case of Ed Gein - definitely worth a look if you’re a fan of true crime comics. Even if Gein’s recollections aren’t quite what happened (memory is a tricky thing, after all), we know from other, more well documented serial killers that they’re made, not born, and it’s hard not to feel sympathy for Gein as his mother destroys him.I’ll start with a little confession: I spent most of this book reading the dialogue in a Fargo-esque Midwest accent, so I invite you to do the same here. Eric has spent his career creating and promoting the validity and importance of creator owned comics through Albatross and other publishers such as Dark Horse and Image Comics. It would be easy to dismiss the problem as non-existent, as too mired in the impossibility of reaching a clear answer. Chapters go up to a horrifying point and then the next chapter steps back a bit to reframe the story from a different angle-- even when just slightly reframing, it helps immensely. Their imaginings based on those facts tell the story of a man who, if indifferent chaos had wielded itself slightly differently, could have turned out only to be pathetic, not pathological.

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! I do give this one all the credit in the world: I'm sure the temptation to just have letters and reports and shit in plain text was VERY high, and at no point does that happen.The artwork, for example, often leaves a lot to the imagination, but the details that are included are portrayed brilliantly. Unfortunately, there are–and will probably always be–people in whom, for whatever reasons of upbringing, neurological damage, etc. Through the text, but obviously through the artwork, there are times when you see Gein's vulnerability, but then almost in the same breath, you are reminded of just what he had done. 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.

uses the facts of Ed Gein’s life to tell you a story so compelling, so expertly rendered, and compassionately told, it will confront your capacity for empathy and have you questioning what you consider your truth. I’ve definitely seen graphic formatting add more to historical events, either through the visual literacy aspects of graphic novels or through contextualizing complex or heavy subject matter, especially for younger audiences. He was the quintessential American psychopath, and his story caused a media frenzy that loomed far larger than the human cost of his crimes. Powell does such a good job making Plainfield just a dull little farming town in the middle of nowhere, and all the people seem nice (although we know that just because they’re “boring” doesn’t make them “nice”), so Gein’s crimes have a huge impact on them, and Powell shows that well.I highly recommend the OGN for those who can stomach the subject matter, but go in with the knowledge that some things are shifted or invented for the purposes of narrative. His mother, Augusta, is shown as an absolutely horrible woman, breaking her son down because she has had terrible experiences with men (Gein’s father, naturally, is a weakling, a coward, and a drunk) and coloring his view of the world and, especially, of sex. Schechter puts a lampshade on this several times in the book, most memorably in the introduction, where he quotes Alfred Hitchcock discussing the case – which, of course, gives Powell the opportunity to draw the great director in all his brilliant, fleshy glory. Definite worth it for fans of his, people interested in real-life murder stories, and people interested in the origin of the story for Psycho. With this graphic novel, Schechter and Powell have painstakingly brought into focus Gein as a character, right from his childhood beginnings to his demise.