The graphic novel recalls Dahmer's isolation, his binge drinking, his bizarre behavior to get attention, and his disturbing fascination with roadkill. The story follows Dahmer from age 12 up to, but not including, his first murder, two weeks after high school graduation.īackderf, while not excusing or forgiving Dahmer's crimes, presents an empathetic portrait of Dahmer as a lonely young man tormented by inner demons, ridiculed by bullies at school, and neglected by the adults in his life.
#My friend dahmer movie fan art serial#
The novel depicts the author's teenage friendship with Jeffrey Dahmer, who later became a serial killer, during his time at Eastview Junior High and Revere High School. Derf felt that he hadn't done the project justice in the 24-page version the 224-page version was published by Abrams in 2012. The success that came with the 24-page version (including an Eisner nomination) spurred Derf to create the 224-page version after six years of stalling. He then self-published a scaled-back 24-page My Friend Dahmer in 2002. Derf pitched the project as a 100-page graphic novel, but failed to find a publisher. Derf's first Dahmer story appeared in Zero Zero #18 (Fantagraphics, July 1997).
#My friend dahmer movie fan art movie#
In 2017 a movie resulted from Derf’s recollections, generally well received and starring Ross Lynch as Dahmer.My Friend Dahmer is the culmination of a comic book project first started in 1994, shortly after Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison. When his journalist wife phones to tell him of a breaking news story of serial killer once in his class, Dahmer is only his second guess. Backderf includes extensive commentary and notes, and ends with a telling coda. The original comic version of this story held a visceral freshness as it was purely based on recollection, but this revision incorporates research and interviews to nail timelines. It contextualises Dahmer’s development amid Styx and Kansas as style role models for the hip kids, while suburbia was swathed in nylon, pine and choppers. The evocation of the mid-1970s, now a different country, is telling.
This can detract from the storytelling, which is a strength. Backderf merges the underground comics style of his youth with Don Martin, delivering the creepiness required, but there’s still a naïve crudity. The portrayal here is of a desperately unhappy young man lacking a shoulder to cry on. Backderf doesn’t ask the question, but it occurs to wonder how many deaths might have been prevented by some adult compassion in 1975-1978. These signs were obvious, yet not a single responsible adult appears to have cared enough to attempt any intervention. The other undercurrent is that for several years Dahmer forged a tormented and drunken life through school, repressing his sexuality. No-one ever expects someone they know will become a serial killer. One undercurrent of this narrative is the adult Derf looking back and wondering how his teenage counterpart can have missed the signs, oddly never realising the answer. Backderf isolates this as the moment he realised Dahmer wasn’t just odd, but truly scary. On the short drive to the mall Dahmer chugs six cans of beer. An ironic ‘Dahmer Fan Club’ is formed, and money raised to have him perform his cerebral palsy act in public.
Backderf lays out Dahmer’s isolation, school acceptance dependent on demeaning himself, and that only among other outcasts. He curries favour with school mates by acting as if he has cerebral palsy, and by sixteen is accompanied to school by a bottle of spirits. The Dahmer introduced here aged thireen is already the class outcast, a target for school thugs and with a profoundly unhappy home life. This led to a self-published comic, vastly expanded for this book.
Jeffrey Dahmer’s grisly secrets were revealed in 1991, thirteen years after his high school friendship with Backderf, and Backderf first published a story about Dahmer in 1997, three years after his murder in jail. However he chooses to be credited, it’s surely the case that Derf is the only cartoonist to have numbered a notorious serial killer among his classmates. John Backderf produces his cartoon strips as Derf, yet for his first outing from a major publisher he’s cover-credited as Derf Backderf.
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