This week I had a chance to speak with mega-bestselling true crime author Harold Schechter. We talked about all sorts of interesting true crime subjects - killer Jeffrey Dahmer, killer Jeffrey MacDonald, shyster Truman Capote, seminal Serial: The Podcast, and most delightful subject of all, the amazing, sudden, universal, and new-found respect for the true crime genre. Who would have guessed?
Most interesting is his new foray into true crime graphic novels. There ha ve been other graphic novels and "comics" about true crimes before, but nothing like Schechter's newest book. This takes true crime in an interesting new direction. The new book is DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? The word in publishing circles is that they can't print them fast enough.
The artist is Eric Powell, of Goon fame, who began the project on kickstarter. another innovation in the true crime genre. Harold and I agreed that the book is absolutely beautiful, a work of high art, and Powell is a genius. Depicting the crimes of Ed Gein was a challenge; he was what Schechter calls "singular" - his crimes were a toxic expression of schizophrenia crossed with necrophilia crossed with hoarding. The manner in which he manifested his necrophilic-schizophrenic urges was also, interestingly, apparently an ancient expression of such things. Ed Gein did things... with the skins. He was not the first. Some ancient cultures engaged in the same exact practices. A curious echo....
In the wrong hands, this could have been a gory and revolting graphic novel. It is the opposite. I found the images mesmerizing. Delightfully disturbing. In the hands of two geniuses, this marriage of the graphic novel and the most graphic true crime story of all turns out to be a happy union.
The interview is in post-production and will be uploaded forthwith.
#clews #DidYouHearWhatEddieGeinDone #TrueCrime #GraphicNovel #HaroldSchechter #EricPowell
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