HAROLD SCHECHTER AND ERIC POWELL RETURN TO TRUE CRIME STORYTELLING WITH “DR. WERTHLESS: THE MAN WHO STUDIED MURDER (AND NEARLY KILLED THE COMICS INDUSTRY)”From the team behind Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?
Acclaimed true crime author Harold Schechter, multiple- Eisner Award-winning cartoonist Eric Powell, and Dark Horse Books present a new true crime graphic novel, Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry), arriving Summer 2024.
Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry) examines one of the most polarizing figures in pop culture: Dr. Frederic Wertham. Reviled by comic book fans as a witch-hunting zealot who stirred up panic among the parents of America for his own self-promoting purposes, he was also a renowned psychiatrist who, among other accomplishments, opened a clinic in Harlem for disadvantaged African-American patients and played an important role in the desegregation of the nation’s schools. Believing that murder could be abolished through a proper understanding of the mental and social roots of criminal violence, he took a genuinely humane approach to some of the most notorious homicidal maniacs of his time. Among these was the monstrous Albert Fish, whose relationship with Wertham forms a key section of Schechter and Powell’s book, epitomizing the renowned psychiatrist’s deep contradictions: his enlightened efforts to shed light on the most depraved aspects of human behavior and his willingness to exploit his subjects’ lurid cases histories for his own commercial ends.
“When Harold and I were discussing possible topics for another collaboration to follow Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?, the minute Harold said, ‘What about Fredric Wertham?’,I knew we had something,” said Powell. “The history of comics, civil rights and some of the most shocking murder cases in America. And a polarizing, complex individual at the center of it all. I think this book will be fascinating to anyone who is a fan of true crime, American history, psychology or comics.”
Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry), a 200-page 6×9 hardcover volume, will be released in bookstores on July 30, 2024 and in comic shops on July 31, 2024. It is now available to pre-order for $29.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local comic shop and bookstoree.
Be sure to follow Dark Horse Comics on social media and check our website, www.darkhorse.com, for more news, announcements, and updates!
Praise for Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?:”Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? 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.”—Comics Bookcase
“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.”—Comics Beat
“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
“This is a new true crime comics essential.”-SyFy Wire
“The artistic decisions are what make this feel less like a textbook lesson on Gein and more of a fantastic visual voyage of what really happened, right up to his death.”-Cemetery Dance
“It’s a vibrant, moody miniature, encapsulating everything compelling and absurd about true crime in the stark overcast shadows of a frigid Wisconsin winter.”-The Comics Journal
“Meticulously researched and realised by writer Harold Schechter and artist Eric Powell, Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Did? is a gritty, engrossing graphic novel depicting the life and crimes of Ed Gein.”-Comicon
