I don't quite agree with Sam that this book is one of the best graphic works of the year, but it's good, getting at the heart(lessness) of the story, based as it is on the author's original True Crime classic about Gein, now adapted for comics. so it’s not surprising that he could get away with this, even in a small community like Plainfield, Wisconsin. 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.

Ed, esattamente come Dhamer, diventa poi, incredibilmente, una leggenda nera, a proposito della quale tutti vogliono dire la loro e sapere qualche dettaglio. Splendid monochrome graphic novel taking care to present this case history in context, drawing on court records and interviews, while being clear about its telescoping of matters to tell a story. Powell's art is unique in that most of a panel could be ink wash or pencil strokes with only the most important focus getting inked. 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.

This "dramatic" retelling of Gein's life and crimes wants desperately to be the latter, but I have the sinking feeling it is more of the former. That book had me at work or out and about craving to get back home to continue reading curious as hell to see what was going to happen next. Tra le pagine non solo siamo assistiamo ai suoi crimini da pelle d’oca, ma riflettiamo anche sui motivi che hanno spinto una mente umana a rovinarsi in questo modo: la nascita in una famiglia disfunzionale, il rapporto malato con la madre fanatica e dispotica, il bullismo subito da parte dei compagni.

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 likes nothing more than sitting down to eat a good marble omelet while listening to Metal Machine Music on 78 rpm. I felt it didn’t have the engrossing story elements with intrigue, suspense making you curious to see what happens next, or any kinda of hook drawing you in.

nurture is still a debate today, and this book backs up my belief that both work together to shape the people we become, which in Gein's case, is monstrous. You can have all of the facts short of the omnipotence of God, but you can never actually solve anything.

They bring you so close to the facts that you can feel the heat of reality off of them, and it stings.Overall - while this can be considered a quick look at case and the complex mind that Ed Gein was - it's definitely worth the time, if not for the story that many already know - then for the artwork that is so hauntingly perfect, reader is nearly transported through time to witness the events themselves. 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.