Week 8: My Friend Dahmer

Reading My Friend Dahmer was very insightful. This comic has a lot to say about how if we don't put an end to some things such as bullying and similar issues, we could create the next Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer dealt with a lot of horrible thoughts and Beckderf, being a journalist, was meant to tell this story and to create this piece of literature. In terms of a general read, it is actually a really good comic/graphic novel. It may be almost morose to say given its contents, however it is well-written, told in sort of a snappy, event-driven style that fills in between the major lengthy events. Such as when a student fell at school and the maniacal laughter that Backderf remembers Dahmer having, and then going on to talk about how they would after find out this is one of the things that Jeffrey Dahmer had said about a certain person. As Berckderf points out, Dahmer gave a lot of interviews which was very unusual for any type of psychopath or serial killer. This makes the novel all the more fascinating because he's done all the research and because he was so close to the story in his own way. I cannot recommend this comic enough. I think that it is incredibly topical, well written, and I really enjoyed the style of the art work. The art work is cartoonish at points, it does look a bit like something you might see in the newspaper, which to me was unusual and something I wasn't expecting for a story having a serious topic such as this. However the fact that it tells the story so richly and the fact that the art isn't hyper realistic almost makes it easier to swallow some of the horrific things that you actually see. Having that separation makes it much easier to stomach if you have trouble with this sort of topic.