Please someone assemble all the people that put this on their "Best Of 2012" lists. I need answers! Supporting Protagonist: Derf is the narrator and viewpoint character, but the comic is clearly Jeff's story. Cashing in on his notoriety, Fisher published additional Dahmer-themed comics shortly thereafter, including Jeffrey Dahmer vs. Jesus Christ #1 (February 1993) [6] and Dahmer's Zombie Squad (1993). [7] Fisher appeared on a 1993 episode of the Sally Jessy Raphael show and on a CNN show in 1994 [8] to discuss criticism of the creation of the Dahmer comics. I Love the Dead: Jeff's first sexual desires are for the male jogger who runs past his house... as a corpse.

a b c d Grossman, Lev (2012-03-28). "My Friend Dahmer: The Unspeakable Horror of Life in the 1970s". Time. ISSN 0040-781X . Retrieved 2022-08-05.

Affably Evil: Jeff gains a reputation for being a popular, if strange, Class Clown after he starts pulling loud stunts imitating a cerebral palsy sufferer. Derf and his friends are so amused by Jeff that they form a fan club in his honor. Aside from missing this opportunity in his book, it is a fascinating and sad story. It certainly made me think about my own cruelties to others, while reminding the reader you never ever know how much small kindnesses may mean to another person. It also touches on the nature/nurture question, as Dahmer's mother had problems during her pregnancy with him, and the household, while forlorn, was certainly something many many other kids have weathered better than Dahmer did. My Friend Dahmer is about Jeffrey Dahmer’s life before he began having his “dates over for dinner.” It tells of a sad, neglected, not-ever-quite-right kind of boy whose problems were ignored by his family, classmates, and teachers alike . . . Caroline Picard (February 23, 2014). "Two Separate Conversations: An Interview with Dave Daley and Stephan Elliott". Make . Retrieved October 18, 2022. Neil: Dunno. It's so weird. I didn't really know her well, but she didn't act suicidal. She was cute...Nice bod. But to off yourself! I just don't get that! I mean, at our age...how bad can life be?

In August 1994, a suit was filed by Dahmer's family against Boneyard Press and Fisher for the unauthorized release of the first Dahmer comic. [23] The suit was soon dismissed by a Milwaukee judge. [24] [8]I have much appreciation for Derf's project. Not everyone is a Ted Bundy "golden boy with a taste for murder"-style sociopath. In the same way that addiction is often an expression of pain or reaction to traumas, with killers like Dahmer there is something more than pure psychopathy at the root of his behavior. As with addicted persons, we absolutely don't OK or excuse his behavior nor should we refrain from punishing him for the consequences of it; but we do recall that all behavior has a root cause, that some of us are better at coping and overcoming these roots, and that a person is not essentially just his behavior. a b c Warner, Stuart (November 6, 2017). "Jeffrey Dahmer's Friend Derf: A Q&A About His Classmate the Serial Killer". Phoenix New Times . Retrieved August 5, 2022. Sometimes when reading non-fiction it feels like it is just an extended research paper. But, when the author was actually involved in the events, it gains a bit more of a personal investment. My Friend Dahmer is definitely the most intense first-hand non-fiction I have ever read. It's not just another exposé on a horrifying story, it is well fleshed out, truthful retelling of previously little known events from before the nightmare began. Ultimately subverted when Jeff kills another dog and mounts its skull on a stake. Double Subversion in that, in Real Life, the dog was already dead when he found it. Dahmer may have been a horrific Serial Killer of young men but he wasn't a zoosadist. He was a huge animal-lover and was horrified at Lloyd Figg's evil pastime of vehicular dogslaughter.

My memories of [Dahmer] are of the tormented kid spiraling into madness, not the monster who later committed those horrific crimes. I remember him as bullied and shunned, much as I was. A quiet young boy who devolved helplessly into a twisted soul."In the early 1990s, Hero Illustrated magazine included Fisher on its "100 Most Important People in the Comic Book Industry", calling him the "most dangerous man in comics". [15] In 2003–2004, Fisher worked with a fellow horror writer/publisher, Joseph M. Monks, on a number of projects, including the books Road Kills ( Chanting Monks Press, 2003) and Sex Crimes (co-published by Boneyard Press & Chanting Monks, 2003). Fisher directed the straight-to-video horror film, Flowers on the Razorwire: Chance Meeting (Crime Pays, 2004), [13] which was written by Monks.