Derf

John Backderf (born October 1959 in Richfield, Ohio) is an American cartoonist known by the pseudonyms Derf and Derf Backderf. Derf is most famous for his recent graphic novels, especially My Friend Dahmer, the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip The City, which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990–2014. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. Backderf has been based in Cleveland, Ohio, for much of his career.

Backderf grew up in Richfield, Ohio, the son of a chemist. He attended Eastview Junior High and Revere High School, where one of his classmates was future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Backderf graduated high school in 1978, and began attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. The following summer he worked as a garbageman back in his hometown. Backderf later transferred to, and graduated from, Ohio State University. Backderf was immersed in the punk movement during the late 1970s.

He began as a political cartoonist, for the Ohio State Lantern, then professionally at The Evening Times is West Palm Beach, FL. He worked as a staff cartoonist at the Cleveland Plain Dealer in the late 80s. In the mid-1990s Backderf worked in the newsroom of the Akron Beacon Journal.

The City

Backderf's comic strip The City appeared in over 140 publications, mostly free weekly newspapers, starting with the now-defunct Cleveland Edition in 1990, including: The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Cleveland Scene, Miami New Times, Houston Press, Pittsburgh City Paper, The Providence Phoenix, and Washington City Paper. In 2014, Derf announced that he was discontinuing The City to focus on graphic novels.

Strips from The City were collected in The City: The World’s Most Grueling Comic Strip (SLG Publishing, 2003) and a multi-volume series of comic books, True Stories (Alternative Comics, 2015, 2016).

Graphic novels

Trashed (Abrams Comic Arts, 2015), a raucous fictional story based on Derf's experiences as a 19-year-old garbageman, was published as a 240-page graphic novel. The project first appeared as a 50-page magazine-size comic book (SLG Publishing, 2002) . It was Derf's first attempt at long-form storytelling and was nominated for an Eisner Award. Derf revisited the project as a webcomic in 2010 and 2012 on Derfcity.com.

My Friend Dahmer (Abrams Comic Arts, 2012) is the culmination of a comic book project first started in 1994, shortly after Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison. Derf's first Dahmer story appeared in Zero Zero #18 (Fantagraphics, July 1997). Derf then pitched the project as a 100-page graphic novel, but failed to find a publisher. He then self-published a scaled-back 24-page My Friend Dahmer comic book in 2002. The original self-published comic book was nominated for an Eisner Award and was adapted and staged as a one-act play by the NYU Theater Dept. The final 224-page incarnation was nominated for Ignatz, Harvey, and Rueben Awards, received an Angoulême Award and was named by Time magazine as one of the top five non-fiction books of 2012.

My Friend Dahmer depicts the author's teenage friendship with Dahmer during his time at Eastview Junior High and Revere High School. Backderf, while not excusing Dahmer's crimes, presents an empathetic portrait of Dahmer as a lonely young man tormented by inner demons and neglected by the adults in his life. The graphic novel recalls Dahmer's isolation, his binge drinking, his bizarre behavior to get attention, and his disturbing fascination with roadkill. Derf and his friends encouraged Dahmer to act out, including fake epileptic seizures in the library and his imitation of a person with cerebral palsy. The story follows Dahmer from age 12 to the day he killed his first victim two weeks after high school graduation.

Lev Grossman, book critic of Time magazine, named My Friend Dahmer as one of the "top five non-fiction books of the year."

Backderf also wrote Punk Rock & Trailer Parks (SLG Publishing, 2010), a 152-page graphic novel set in 1980, during the punk rock heyday in Akron, Ohio, a music scene that produced such acts as Devo, Chrissie Hynde, and The Cramps. Punk Rock & Trailer Parks is a fictional story that follows one remarkable young man named Otto who, through talent, wits and sheer chutzpah becomes a star in the Rubber City punk scene and has memorable meetings with underground luminaries of the day, including Wendy O. Williams, Stiv Bators, Lester Bangs, and The Clash. Punk Rock & Trailer Parks was featured in the 2010 edition of Best American Comics (Houghton Mifflin).

Backderf's art has been compared to Robert Crumb, with his use of black to "project character and menace" praised. Derf cites Crumb as an influence, along with Mad Magazine and Vaughn Bodé. He cites Expressionism as the inspiration for his usage of heavy ink, but feels the major influence on his work is the imagery of punk.

Backderf has contributed to many well-known national publications, including Playboy, The Wall Street Journal and The Progressive. His illustrations have also appeared on posters, T-shirts, and CD covers.

Exhibitions

Backderf's work has been displayed in many galleries and museums both in the United States and abroad. In 1995, he had a large solo show at Altered Image Gallery in Cleveland, and in 1999 the Akron Art Museum put on a retrospective of his work, titled "Apocalyptic Giggles: The Industrial Cartoon Humor of Derf." The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at the Ohio State University established a Derf Collection of original art and papers in 2011.

Backderf has won over 50 awards for his newspaper work, including a prestigious Bronze Medal from the Society of Newspaper Design. He was a member of the newsroom team for the Akron Beacon Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1995. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. He received the Prix Révélation at the 2014 Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. In 2016, he won an Eisner Award for lettering for Trashed.