“A well-told, powerful story. Backderf is quite skilled in using comics to tell this tale of a truly weird and sinister 1970s adolescent world.â€? —R. Crumb NATIONAL BESTSELLER Named a BEST OF 2012 by Time, The Village Voice, A.V. Club, comiXology, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, MTV Geek, and more! “ASTOUNDING.â€? —Lev Grossman, Time You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer—the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper—seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, Dahmer was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and readers will never forget. This new paperback edition will coincide with the release of the movie adaptation of My Friend Dahmer and will include additional bonus content from the author archives.

The bone-chilling graphic novel that inspired the major motion picture starring Ross Lynch as Jeffrey Dahmer. NATIONAL BESTSELLER 2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award 2014 Revelation Award at Angoulême 2015 ALA/YALSA Alex Award (Excellence in Narrative Nonfiction) Named a BEST OF 2012 by Time, The Village Voice, A.V. Club, comiXology, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, MTV Geek, and more! You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer—the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper—seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget. Also available by Derf Backderf, Trashed. Find teaching guides for My Friend Dahmer and other titles at abramsbooks.com/resources.

We all have that one friend from school -- the strange kid, the class freak, the guy whose antics amused, entertained, and maybe even alarmed us. The one who sticks in our heads even with the passing of the years. That classmate is invariably left behind when we graduate, vanishing into memory, filed away with our old yearbooks and other teenage mementos. But every now and then we wonder, whatever happened to that friend? For one man who grew up in a small town in Ohio, that questions was by every media outlet in the world on July 22, 1991, when Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested for the murder of seventeen young men and teenage boys. My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel from political cartoonist Derf Backderf in which he tries to make sense of the future serial killer with whom he shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides.

Every week we pile our garbage on the curb and it disappears—like magic! The reality is anything but, of course. Trashed, Derf Backderf’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed, award-winning international bestseller My Friend Dahmer, is an ode to the crap job of all crap jobs—garbage collector. Anyone who has ever been trapped in a soul-sucking gig will relate to this tale. Trashed follows the raucous escapades of three 20-something friends as they clean the streets of pile after pile of stinking garbage, while battling annoying small-town bureaucrats, bizarre townfolk, sweltering summer heat, and frigid winter storms. Trashed is fiction, but is inspired by Derf’s own experiences as a garbage­man. Interspersed are nonfiction pages that detail what our garbage is and where it goes. The answers will stun you. Hop on the garbage truck named Betty and ride along with Derf on a journey into the vast, secret world of garbage. Trashed is a hilarious, stomach-churning tale that will leave you laughing and wincing in disbelief.

"Punk Rock & Trailer Parks conjures up the oppressive insanity of growing up in a small town, the day-to-day weirdness of the trailer parks tucked away therein, the magic allure of sex and the necessary comforts of friendship, the mystical power of the counter-culture to turn outcasts into heroes and, most of all, the transcendent power of music, specifically the punk rock of the late 1970's which redefined, transported, and ultimately, perhaps, disappointed a generation. Punk Rock & Trailer Parks touches on themes and emotions that are universal to any kid in America who knows that there MUST be something else out there other than this"--P. [4] of cover.

From Derf Backderf, the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer, comes the tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings†‹ On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard gunned down unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University. In a deadly barrage of 67 shots, 4 students were killed and 9 shot and wounded. It was the day America turned guns on its own children—a shocking event burned into our national memory. A few days prior, 10-year-old Derf Backderf saw those same Guardsmen patrolling his nearby hometown, sent in by the governor to crush a trucker strike. Using the journalism skills he employed on My Friend Dahmer and Trashed, Backderf has conducted extensive interviews and research to explore the lives of these four young people and the events of those four days in May, when the country seemed on the brink of tearing apart. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, which will be published in time for the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, is a moving and troubling story about the bitter price of dissent—as relevant today as it was in 1970.

Derf – creator of the graphic novels Trashed, Punk Rock & Trailer Parks and the international bestseller, My Friend Dahmer – presents the best of his True Stories from the long running The City comic strip, as seen in Best American Comics. It’s like Humans of New York, but somewhat stranger. Pressure… Pressure…

The first full account of this heinous but fascinating criminal describes how Dahmer was transformed from a seemingly harmless young man into a savage killer who kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and cannibalized his victims. Reprint.

You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer?the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper?seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche?a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget. Praise for My Friend Dahmer: "The tone is sympathetic and enraged ('Where were the damn adults?'), while not excusing or making the story unduly fascinating. Backderf's writing is impeccably honest in not exculpating his own misdeeds ... and quietly horrifying. A small, dark classic."?Publishers Weekly (starred review)? "One of the best graphic novels I've read this year."? USA Today's PopCandy "One of the most thought-provoking comics released in a long time."? Slate.com? "Carefully researched and sourced with ample back matter, Backderf's tragic chronicle of what shouldn't have been is a real butt-kicker for educators and youth counselors as well as peers of other potential Dahmers. Highly recommended for professionals as well as true crime readers."?Library Journal "This isnt a cautionary tale. Its insight sharedinsight arriving too late to save Dahmers victims, let alone Jeff himself, but perhaps soon enough to remind both teens and their caretakers that questioning peculiar behavior might be a better tack than ignoring or exploiting it."? School Library Journal? "Fortunately, cartoonist Derf Backderf isn't one to avoid the troubling, even terrifying, truths that lurk in the dark recesses of that notorious serial killer's early lifeand modern American life itself."? Foreword Reviews "A powerful, unsettling use of the graphic medium to share a profoundly disturbing story. ... An exemplary demonstration of the transformative possibilities of graphic narrative."?Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Masterful. . . a rich tale full of complexity and sensitivity ... There's something about Dahmer's life and crimes that seems almost crafted for treatment in the murky world of comix. Yet it's empathy and nuance, not gore, that put My Friend Dahmer alongside Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and David Small's Stitches in the annals of illustrated literature."?Cleveland Plain Dealer "A new classic of the graphic novel genre. ... A moving book that qualifies as one of the great graphic novels, a work of art."?Creative Loafing "A well-told, powerful story. Backderf is quite skilled in using comics to tell this tale of a truly weird and sinister 1970s adolescent world."??R. Crumb.