My Friend Dahmer: Derf Backderf (Graphic Biographies)

Product Information

Besides Fisher's own work, Boneyard published " mature readers" material in the genres of unauthorized biographies, true crime, horror, [9] and erotic comics. The company's longest-running title was the 12-issue horror anthology Flowers on the Razorwire (1993–1997). Creators published by Boneyard included John Cassaday, Troy Boyle, Gerard Way, J. G. Jones and Angel Gabriele. Threshold Press was a Boneyard Press imprint. Drowning My Sorrows: The more and more his necrophiliac fantasies take shape, the more and more Jeff depends on the bottle to keep them at bay. Soon he is showing up late to class (if at all) and stinking of booze, but the faculty at Revere are apparently none the wiser. Communications and Marketing Office (2013-01-28). "YALSA announces 2013 Alex Awards". News and Press Center . Retrieved 2022-08-05.

An Aesop: If someone shows signs of distress or mental illness, intervene as soon as possible or those problems will get worse. Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe. While initially viewing him as something of an endearing weirdo, Derf makes it clear that he loses all sympathy for Dahmer as soon as he actually commits murder.

The Larry King Live show in 2008 included a segment with Fisher about Jeffrey Dahmer memorabilia, including Fisher's comics. [16] The episode also has a young Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, an employee of Fisher's in the early 1990s. Fisher also discussed the Dahmer comic book on a panel at the 2011 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. [17] Legal issues, tragedies, and controversies [ edit ] At one point, Fisher faked his own death as an April Fools' Day Prank. [19] In 1993, Fisher's girlfriend, Michelle Ray Davis, was raped and murdered during an armed robbery at the motel where she worked. [20] Fisher testified for the prosecution at the trial, [21] and the perpetrator was convicted of the murder and given a death sentence. In 2001, however, Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentence to life in prison. [22] Affably Evil: Jeff gains a reputation for being a popular, if strange, Class Clown after he starts pulling loud stunts imitating a cerebral palsy sufferer. Derf and his friends are so amused by Jeff that they form a fan club in his honor.

There is much speculation in the book about what could have "saved" Dahmer. The author maintains that the adults in his life were too "incomprehensively clueless and/or indifferent." I agree with the indifferent part. One of my son's teachers once told me, "The quiet one's tend to get ignored." And I can tell a difference in my son's friends. The one's whose parents play a significant part in their lives are more outgoing. They look you in the eyes when they speak. In 1992, Boneyard sued Marvel Comics over Marvel's Hell's Angel/Dark Angel, as Boneyard was already publishing a comic with the title Dark Angel. [18]

But what would have changed the way things turned out for Jeffery Dahmer and his 17 victims? We'll never know. I can't help thinking 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.

From Nobody to Nightmare: The book explores the early process for Jeff, as well as how every adult who could have taken him off that path didn't. Adaptation Name Change: A number of supporting characters' names are not what they were in Real Life, presumably for legal reasons. Lloyd Figg was not really "Lloyd Figg", while "Neil" and "Kent" were likely also pseudonyms (only John/Derf and Mike go by their real names). Cindy Zlatka (the suicide discussed in the fishing scene) likely didn't go by that name. Art Evolution: The artwork from Derf's original 2002 one-shot comic is very scraggly while artwork in the graphic novel version, published ten years later, is much more streamlined. Compare this panel from the original work and this panel ◊ from the graphic novel. The novel depicts the author's teenage friendship with Jeffrey Dahmer, who later became an infamous serial killer, during his time at Eastview Junior High and Revere High School. The story follows Dahmer from age 12 up to, but not including, his first murder, two weeks after high school graduation.

Neil: Dunno. It's so weird. I didn't really know her well, but she didn't act suicidal. She was cute...Nice bod. But to off yourself! I just don't get that! I mean, at our age...how bad can life be?

Class Clown: Jeff gets a following by pranking students and teachers with fake cerebral palsy behavior. Victims' Relative Lose Suit Against Dahmer Comics". Orlando Sentinel. August 21, 1994 . Retrieved January 29, 2013.I have much appreciation for Derf's project. Not everyone is a Ted Bundy "golden boy with a taste for murder"-style sociopath. In the same way that addiction is often an expression of pain or reaction to traumas, with killers like Dahmer there is something more than pure psychopathy at the root of his behavior. As with addicted persons, we absolutely don't OK or excuse his behavior nor should we refrain from punishing him for the consequences of it; but we do recall that all behavior has a root cause, that some of us are better at coping and overcoming these roots, and that a person is not essentially just his behavior.