Mein Freund Dahmer

In this graphic novel biography, award-winning cartoonist Derf Backderf tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer's youth, the Milwaukee Monster and one of the most horrifying serial killers since Jack the Ripper. It is not only Jeff's teenage years that are depicted, but also Backderf's own, as the two attended the same high school and lived in the same neighborhood. The portrait he paints is surprising: not that of an inhuman monster devoid of emotion, but that of a misunderstood and abused boy, a born outsider consumed by his forbidden desires while the adults in his life fail him. Dahmer killed at least 17 people. His actions are indescribable and unforgivable, but Backderf's approach to the phenomenon of Jeffrey Dahmer may be the most personal and best imaginable.