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WEIRD TRIPS No. 2 (1978) first printing
Ed Gein,
America's first and most notorious cannibal murderer, is the subject of
a startling cover story by Dave Schreiner and an
incredibly ghoulish (or is that goulash?) cover by William
Stout. Publisher Kitchen Sink Press's office was
a short distance from Plainfield WI where Gein dug up corpses, made
lampshades out of skin and dressed his last victim like a deer. Many
times out-of-state visitors to KSP would ask for directions to
Plainfield, to see firsthand the quiet midwest town whose horror
transfixed the nation in 1957, inspired films from Psycho and Texas
Chainsaw Massacre.
Inevitably fellow Wisconsinites put
together this overview. Schreiner's account is heavily researched and
augmented by professional photographs of Gein and the crime scene
taken prior to the burning of his homestead by repulsed neighbors, as
well as a photo of Ed's car touring sideshows, and Gein at a parole
hearing in 1968 (he was declared sane but the judge kept Ed
incarcerated to protect himself, not society).
New Gein illustrations, including Ed
wearing a suit of skin by Peter Poplaski. Weird Trips
was not a comic book, though it superficially looked like one.
Editor/publisher Denis Kitchen intended it to be a
regular magazine of strange events but it never got past this second
issue.
Besides the Ed Gein cover story issue #2
contains a lengthy illustrated interview with Robert Shea and Robert Anton
Wilson, authors of Illuminatus, "the foremost work
of anatchist fiction to date," touching on Sirius, the number 23,
synchronicity, Aleister Crowley, cryonics, Timothy Leary
and many more unusual topics. Plus a new centerfold graphic by Joel
Beck (animals switching places with humans) and a true grisly
story by Greg Dempsey about a flood that uprooted a cemetery in
Tujunga, CA in 1978, illustrated by cover artist Bill Stout.
This is a first (only) printing in NM/Mint
condition from the publisher's personal archives.
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