My Friend Dahmer: A Graphic Novel in Last Podcast on the Left

Jun 21, 2017 Bec rated it it was amazing

This blew me away, I loved it. I want to buy a copy to own it for re reading. I would say having an idea of who Dahmer is would possibly make it more enjoyable, just to have context of what this story is acting as a sort of prologue to. For crime buffs would highly recommend.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2014 ElphaReads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir, reading-list-2014, true-crime, non-fiction, graphic-novels

Every high school has one. That one kid that kind of blends in with the crowd while being well, kind of weird. The kid that no one really has a connection to outside of some kind of schoolwork partnership, or maybe out of some pitiable amusement to their character. And once high school is over, and your life has gone on for a while, your thoughts might flit back to that classmate, and you ask yourself 'whatever happened to that kid? Heh, I bet he's a serial killer now or something.' Then you hav Every high school has one. That one kid that kind of blends in with the crowd while being well, kind of weird. The kid that no one really has a connection to outside of some kind of schoolwork partnership, or maybe out of some pitiable amusement to their character. And once high school is over, and your life has gone on for a while, your thoughts might flit back to that classmate, and you ask yourself 'whatever happened to that kid? Heh, I bet he's a serial killer now or something.' Then you have a good laugh at their expense, and go about your business of not knowing. I admittedly have that classmate in mind right now. But I don't think (at least I hope not) that I will have the same experience as Derf Backderf, who had these thoughts about the now notorious murderer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer, who was once on an outer ring of Backderf's social circle in high school. I can guarantee that if I ever hear such a thing about this classmate of mine, I would probably not have the drive and guts to do what Backderf did, and that is write a graphic novel about his associations with that weirdo classmate who just happened to torture, kill, and eat a bunch of people. MY FRIEND DAHMER, however, isn't what you might expect it to be. It isn't lurid. It isn't heavy on the details of what happened after their association went dry. It actually asks the questions that many people don't have the courage to ask; what the hell went wrong?

Backderf and Dahmer went to high school together. While they weren't buddies per se, Dahmer was a source of amusement for Backderf in high school, as he would do weird impressions of spastic people. Cruel impressions, but hey, it was the 1970s and they were teenage boys, who really expects political correctness from this? Backderf and his close friends kind of formed a 'Dahmner Fan Club' as it were, as they found Jeffrey incredibly amusing, but not enough so to really hang out with him too much. Backderf always felt there was something off about his classmate. What he didn't know at the time was that Dahmer's parents were going through a very bitter and nasty divorce, and Dahmer was fighting really gross and disturbing urges by drinking himself stupid and messing with dead animals. While no one in their small town paid much attention, serious attention to Jeffrey Dahmer, this strange, kind of outcast kid was developing into one of the most infamous serial killers in American history.

There are so many things that I loved about this book. One, it was incredibly tasteful. Sure, the drawings are a bit crude and lewd at times, but that just adds to the undercurrent of horror. But the content itself? It never felt voyeuristic, nor did it feel like Backderf was exploiting a terrible gathering of brutality for his own gain. It always felt like he was just exploring why this happened, without being preachy (though he points fingers). Another thing I liked was that Backderf wasn't making excuses for Dahmer, by saying 'oh a cruel world did this to him and he was just misunderstood'. He says that his sympathy for Dahmer ends as soon as he made that first kill. HOWEVER, he also says that there were very clearly warning signs regarding his classmate, and that not only were Dahmer's parents so wrapped up in their own dramatic nonsense to notice, that teachers, guidance counselors, and other adults couldn't be bothered to notice either. That, to me, says something. Backderf points quite the finger at the authority figures in Dahmer's life, and I'm inclined to agree with him. From parents who didn't realize their blow out fights drove him from the house, to teachers and guidance counselors who didn't notice the heavy stench of alcohol, all the way to the police who pulled Dahmer over and didn't ask too many questions about the garbage bags in his back seat, adults in his life failed Dahmer, and failed his later victims as well. I don't empathize with Dahmer, and I by no means excuse or explain away what he did. Lots of people have hard, troublesome lives and don't end up killing and consuming multiple people. But man. I pity him back then because of the things that seemed to shape him into what he became. And clearly, Backderf does too.

There are also a LOT of source notes in the back that I really enjoyed going through, and there were legitimately really funny parts of this book. One of my favorite scenes is Backderf talking about how trivial his problems were (a panel shows him reacting to a note from his very loving mother asking him to empty the dishwasher by yelling 'AAAARG!!!'. Who hasn't been there?), and also the stories of how he and his friends would manage to sneak Dahmer into various club pictures for the yearbook just because. But there are other parts that just hit you right in the gut. I would agree that all sympathy ends when Dahmer killed and didn't turn himself in even though he felt 'guilty', or so he said. But I think that books like this are important, because we all like to think that people are just born evil and depraved. I'm more inclined to believe that Dahmer didn't have to turn out that way, but didn't have much of a chance not to.

A few weeks ago I went to the wedding of some high school friends, which brought my best friend from the time into town. He and I spent a lot of time talking about all sorts of things, and we did at one point reminisce about that one classmate. "Whatever happened to him? Do we know?" he asked. "No," I said, and smirked. "He's probably going to be the next Unabomber or something."

God I hope I'm wrong.
...more

Like · see review