My Friend Dahmer: Derf Backderf (Graphic Biographies)

Product Information

In 1992, while still in college, Fisher founded the publisher, Boneyard Press, in Champaign, Illinois.

I do wish the novel made more of an effort to legitimize the seriousness of Dahmer's crimes (though I have no doubt Backderf does in his personal life). While the tone of the book shows Dahmer as a tragic figure, this only applies up until his first murder at age 18.He led a normal existence, with a close circle of friends, a loving family, and aspirations of leaving small-town life after entering an art college. Derf considers these incidents to be devastating blows for Jeff, and links the abandonment by his parents to his desire to keep his victims from ever leaving him.

With all the Dahmer data he could find, and a head full of memories he can't shake, Derf tries to connect with the young serial killer in-the-making, with parents too caught up in their own problems, who was a full-blown alcoholic by high school, and a closeted homosexual in an unforgiving region and time period. Dahmer had a few friends among the other outcasts at the bottom of the social ladder but didn't even fit in with them and walks down the road to hell a single baby step at a time. An intelligent and normal child in his early youth, he began to withdraw from others when he was ten, and became increasingly fascinated with the carcasses of animals, which he would collect and dissect.Also invoked later when, during a field trip with classmates to Washington DC, Jeff uses a payphone and talks an aide into letting him and Neil visit the Vice President of the United States. The author maintains that the adults in his life were too "incomprehensively clueless and/or indifferent. Nightmare Fetishist: In junior high, Jeff collects roadkill and dissolves the carcasses in pickle jars filled with acid, and later steals a fetal pig from the school lab to dissect. This is the grand finale of a life poorly spent and the end result is just overwhemingly depressing .

They never play a part in the actual story itself, but Derf mentions that they were used to kill his first victim in the afterword. I would occasionally see him at company parties, quietly watching from the back, this tall dude with a long face who usually seemed pissed at something. The second victim who Dahmer tried his " drilling technique" on was his next victim Tony Hughes, the deaf aspiring model featured in episode 6, "Silenced. In the Monster true story, Dahmer began sedating his victims, because he disliked movement during sex and sought to perceive his sexual partners as objects.Consummate Liar: Derf notes that Jeff is great at deceiving others, which would become a very useful skill once he becomes a Serial Killer. But even then the douchiest douche can't possibly inspire more negative feelings than a goddamn serial killer! If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser.