Dr. Werthless by Harold Schechter, Eric Powell

He Studied Murder And Nearly Killed the Comics Industry! From the creative team behind the award-winning “Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done?” comes an examination of one of the most polarizing figures in pop culture, Dr. Fredric Wertham. Reviled by comic book fans as a witch-hunting zealot who stirred up a panic among the parents of America for his own self-promoting purposes, he was also a renowned psychiatrists 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, while simultaneously exploiting their stories for his own commercial ends. Acclaimed true crime author, Harold Schechter, and multiple Eisner award winning cartoonist, Eric Powell, present a graphic novel that takes an unbiased look at this flawed and enormously and complex man—whose obsessive dream of freeing the world from violence nearly murdered the comics industry.

Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowed for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books *Fatal*, *Fiend*, *Bestial*, *Deviant*, *Deranged*, *Depraved*, and, with David Everitt, *The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers*. He is also the author of *Nevermore* and *The Hum Bug*, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Ellen Poe. He lives in New York State and is the father of YA novelist, Lauren Oliver. — Mostly from *Depraved*