Derf Backderf

Written by a man who went to high school with and was sort of a peripheral friend of teenaged Jeffrey Dahmer, this is not a particularly sympathetic portrayal of the notorious serial killer. Backderf states in the introduction, "Dahmer was a twisted wretch whose depravity was almost beyond comprehension. Pity him, but don't empathize with him."

It's a well-researched story of what it was like to be around Jeff before he became the infamous Dahmer. Jeff is portrayed as a sad kid who started show more drinking heavily in high school in an attempt to quiet his demons, but also as a kid who all the other kids knew was "off" for reasons other than just the drinking.

Backderf's biggest takeaway from the experience was that the adults who should have noticed Jeff's behavior either weren't there or didn't care. As he says on p. 67, with a haunting illustration of Jeff as he is becoming Dahmer, "Where were the damn adults?" show less

If you had gone to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer, had sat next to him in class and hung out with him at the mall, if you had met his mother, wouldn't you want to write about it? Especially if you're an artist and a writer?

This is an interesting graphic memoir, exploring the junior high (as we called it then) and high school years of a group of "friends" of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Backderf is clearly trying to come to terms with the surreal experience of having known Dahmer before he show more became a killer, of having been part of a high school milieu that ostracized and teased Dahmer, "all in good fun." Backderf appropriately wonders where the adults were who might have changed fate with some intervention (shades of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson) but he fails to fully acknowledge the meanness that was part of his own interactions with the lonely and tormented Dahmer. It was, of course, the 1970s and things were different then. I, myself, graduated from high school in the same year as Dahmer and Backderf, and I enjoyed Backderf's depictions of our culture and the much looser rules and norms than those experienced by today's high school kids. And I would be the last to assert that Backderf and his friends are in any way culpable for Dahmer's development into a monster. Societal homophobia, adult self-absorption, and mental illness are all to blame. Still, I believe Backderf's graphic narrative sheds some light on the impact of stereotypes and adolescent bullying on a lost soul's deterioration into the worst hell, despite the artist's repeated assertions that he and his friends deserve no reprimand. show less

History repeats itself.

A president who vows to keep the United States out of war goes back on his word, moving to suppress the free press that criticizes him, demonizing socialists and immigrants as traitors to be deported, and unleashing a paramilitary force to demand citizens present papers on the streets or face detainment.

And it all happened more than a hundred years ago under a guy named Woodrow Wilson.

Derf Backderf masterfully dramatizes real events by having a fictional cartoonist show more hang out with the actual people who were put on trial under sedition and espionage laws for daring to make cartoons that disagreed with the President's mandated point of view.

It made me angry and sad, but I couldn't stop reading once I got going. (Though I did take my time going through the extensive end matter, absorbing the multitude of details over the course of four days.)

I'm already sure this will be one of my top graphic novels of the year and will appeal to readers with an interest in history and/or politics.

Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com. show less

Very interesting, often chilling graphic novel. It's strange, frightening, and incredibly sad to get this peek into what Dahmer's adolescence was like. As Backderf points out -- where were the adults in his story? Who should have been there (and clearly wasn't) to notice his suffering as a child and teen, and offer some much-needed help? I am sure we'd all like to think that if we had been in that situation, we would have seen the warning signs and stepped in, but how realistic is it to show more think we would have been any better?

Backderf does a really good job of focusing on Dahmer's pre-serial-killer life, combining his own personal accounts (as a sort-of friend of Dahmer's)along with other documented interviews and accounts of other acquaintances. It made Dahmer feel more human--his is truly a tragic tale--which I think gets lost in the horror of his atrocious crimes as an adult. show less