Derf Backderf creates nonfiction graphic novels about American subcultures, public disasters and people he observed before they became part of larger history. My Friend Dahmer recounts his school years around Jeffrey Dahmer, focusing on the isolated teenager classmates knew before his later murders rather than reconstructing the crimes themselves. Trashed draws on Backderf's own work collecting rubbish and turns sanitation labour into social comedy, while Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio reconstructs the 1970 shootings through research and the lives of the students who were killed. His drawing is blunt and documentary-minded, with dark humour giving way to careful reporting when required. Backderf's work connects graphic memoir, true crime comics, labour narratives and graphic history. Read more Less
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