Und sie kaufen jeden Scheiss!

[Sascha Thau]

Ich weiß warum ich SAVANT Leser bin. Gus Dahlberg schreibt das offensichtliche, aber manchmal braucht man so etwas auch mal.

Über TRANSFOMER Comics und Plastiktüten:
http://www.savantmag.com/essay.html

Aber SAVANT wäre nicht SAVANT wenn sie unsere Nasen nicht auf wirkliche Kracher hinweisen würden. Untenstehende Rezension klingt verdammt interessant:

MY FRIEND DAHMER
Derf
US $2.95
Derfcity Comics

You need to read this book.

You need to read this book because the story is one that would be almost entirely unbelievable if it weren't true; you need to read this book because writer/artist Derf Gets It Right where so many others have tried and failed; you need to read this book because not many other people will.

Derf is the professional handle of John Backderf, the cartoonist best known for his comic strip "The City," a weekly masterpiece of perversion, outrage and social criticism. Along with Tom Tomorrow's "This Modern World," "The City" stands as one of the very few comic strips able to be laugh out loud funny without watering down the socio-political messages.

In his second full-length comic, My Friend Dahmer, Derf tells a true story that is more shocking than anything he's ever printed in "The City." In high school, Derf was friends with a young man named Jeffrey Dahmer. THE Jeffrey Dahmer, he of serial murder and cannibalism fame.

Derf tells us straight away in the intro that he in no way enjoyed the writing and drawing of My Friend Dahmer. He makes it abundantly clear that he is not catering to those who enjoy serial killer collectibles and ogling over gory depictions and descriptions of murder. He had a story that needed telling, so he told it as best he could.

My Friend Dahmer is a collection of three shorter pieces, "Young Jeffrey Dahmer," "Dahmer's Command Performance" and "Dissolve To Black." All three stories take place in high school, and not one of them features a murder. Derf isn't interested in Dahmer's infamous crimes but rather what drove him to commit them. Before Dahmer was a serial killer, he was a severely troubled youth. No one reached out to him, and eventually he snapped. It's a familiar song, one that gets a lot of airplay these days. The only thing that changes are the lyrics: Columbine, Heath High School, Pearl Mississippi. Derf cuts through the hype and BS perfectly. There's no talk of bad parenting or TV and videogame violence. Dahmer may be a monster, but he's our monster. We created him.

Derf's exaggerated style, reminiscent of Crumb, is purposely toned down to avoid making anything in the book even remotely humorous. His drawings of Dahmer staring blankly ahead, mimicking cerebral palsy victims for laughs and attention and knocking back massive amounts of alcohol are haunting. (The book is lying closed on my desk right now, and just looking at the cover with its perfectly shaded headshot of Dahmer, his pupils replaced by red skulls, is giving me the willies. Between you and I, I can't wait to put it back in the drawer.) The spare but effective dialogue and clear exposition work in perfect synch with the impressive art.

Seeing Dahmer quietly stroll through the halls of his high school as he is mocked and jeered, seeing Dahmer kneeling over a mutilated fish, seeing him collect roadkill, seeing him freak out in the middle of a mall while his unaware buddies laugh-these are some of the most disturbing images you'll see in a comic. Ever.


(Bryan Miller)

[Sascha Thau]

Hier der Link zum Review:
http://www.derfcity.com/

und der Link zum reingucken:
http://www.derfcity.com/crap/jd1.html

bye Sascha