Harold Schechter And Eric Powell Return To True Crime This Summer With ‘Dr. Werthless’

The band gets back together as the team behind Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? presents Dr. Werthless: The Man Who Studied Murder (And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry).

True crime author Harold Schechter and Eric Powell examine one of the most polarizing figures in pop culture: Dr. Frederic Wertham. A pariah among comic book fans, the witch-hunting zealot stirred up panic among the parents of America for his own self promotion. He was also a psychiatrist who opened a clinic in Harlem for disadvantaged African-American patients, and fought for desegregation in the nation’s schools. 

Believing that murder could be abolished through a better understanding of the mental and social roots of criminal violence, he took a humane approach to the most infamous homicidal maniacs of his time. Among these was The Gray Man himself, Albert Fish. Fish and Wertham’s relationship is a key section in Schecter and Powell’s book, highlighting Wertham’s most puzzling dichotomy: 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) will be released as a 200-page 6×9 hardcover volume, in bookstores on July 30, 2024 and in comic shops on July 31, 2024. It is now available to pre-order for $29.99.