It is here that the book shines even more, not just thanks to the impossibly masterful strokes of artist Eric Powell’s pencil, but also by not giving us a straight answer: surely, we are given an interpretation of what might have happened in those moments when nobody was present, but, at the same time, there is no final judgment being uttered by the two writers.

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.

Ja niin siinä sitten kävi, että wisconsinilaisessa Plainfieldissa murhattiin loppuvuodesta 1957 kauppias Bernice Worden. Gein jäi melkein heti käpälälautaan, mutta hänen tilalleen saapuneet viranomaiset eivät olleet varautuneet siihen mitä he löytäisivät... Sisältövaroitus on paikallaan, kuvamateriaali on hetkittäin aika häiritsevää. 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. 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? 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. 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.

He added: “And when my favorite true-crime author and Gein expert, Harold Schechter, enthusiastically agreed to work with me on a project, it was a dream (nightmare?) come true. The best part is we have a really unique take with in-depth information. I’m really proud of this book and I think anyone also intrigued by the darker aspects of the human psyche is really going to enjoy it.” 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.

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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 is fantastic! Not only is Eric Powell’s art on point, but Harold Schechter introduces some new ideas about Ed Gein that have never been heard.”– THE LAST PODCAST ON THE LEFT In the end, the Gein we are being presented with in this superb novel is not a character we can understand, at least not regarding the motives behind his abhorrent conduct. What does the fact that he denies killing people mean, even when there is so much evidence pointing to his being obviously guilty? 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. 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.

Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? is an in-depth exploration of the Gein family and what led to the creation of the necrophile who haunted the dreams of 1950s America and inspired such films as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs.

Recently, Eric has been working in collaboration with acclaimed director David Fincher, Blur Studio, and Dark Horse Entertainment to bring The Goon to life on the big screen as an animated feature film. 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.”

Schechter: I regard Eric as arguably the greatest comic book artist of his generation. And to state the obvious, the graphic novel is now recognized as one of the most significant artistic genres of our age. Part of the reason for that is its unique power to visualize and evoke the interior life of the subject. One of the features of our Gein collaboration that I'm proudest of is the way we've been able to take the reader into the phantasmagoric workings of Ed Gein's mind. Darkly disturbing, and scarier because it is based on facts, this story is not to be missed for true-crime aficionados!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. 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’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. Okee then, let’s go. 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.