My Friend Dahmer: Derf Backderf (Graphic Biographies)

As you may have already guessed, since ‘Dahmer’ isn’t exactly the most common of names, this graphic novel is indeed about Jeffrey Dahmer the American serial killer. However, it isn’t about the persona of Jeffrey Dahmer we have all come to know in the media – serial killer! cannibal! monster! – rather, it’s a look into who Jeffrey Dahmer the high school boy was – lonely, confused, hurting – before he committed his many crimes. You see, Derf Backderf was a classmate of Dahmer’s in high school. They weren’t exactly friends, but they did spend many a lunch hour together during those four years at Revere High. And what Backderf offers in his graphic novel is an honest and unique trip down memory lane alongside him as he recalls (through his own memory, conversations and interviews with former classmates, as well as facts detailed in police files) what life was like back in those high school days in Bath, Ohio amongst the awkward and lonely boy Jeff who, unbeknownst to all those around him, would grow up to be one of America’s most notorious and depraved serial killers.

With cool illustrations, you get to vicariously relive memories such as: Jeffrey attending his prom only to feel entirely out of place, leaving for the majority of the party without saying a word to his date, and returning at the end of the night to give his date a ride home; Jeffrey’s early descent into alcoholism and the curious way in which it went shamefully ignored by the adults and authority figures in his life; the deterioration and inevitable end of his parents’ marriage and how it affected him; and his strange yet amusing antics at school which led to the mock formation of “The Dahmer Fan Club” (which the author was a founding member of). We see what Jeffrey’s inner torment looked like in the eyes of a teenage Backderf and how useless and baffled young people can feel when faced with a peer who so obviously needed some sort of guidance and attention but for what nobody quite understood. While the book alludes to Jeffrey’s first murder of a human being (just after he had graduated from high school), it concludes where Backderf’s association with Dahmer ends (that is, when Backderf went off to college) and much before Jeffrey evolved into the cannibalistic serial killer we all know him as today. The epilogue, however, picks up nearly a decade and a half later to quickly depict what it was like for Backderf to get the call stating that his good ol’ former high school classmate had just been arrested for the murders of more than a dozen young men in Milwaukee.

I’m not a huge fan of comics or graphic novels, but I do in fact have a long-standing interest in the Jeffrey Dahmer case. So, regardless of not typically being a reader of such books, I just had to pick this one up when I noticed it on display at my local library. And I must say, I really did enjoy Backderf’s story and the unique format in which he shared it – with art, stark candor and subtle humour.

If you’re interested in reading something a little different than usual, something quick and based on a true story, or if you’re simply just a fan of true crime in general, My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf won’t disappoint.