History ComicBook / MyFriendDahmer

Then, his classmate grew up to be [[SerialKiller Jeffrey Dahmer]].

* LivingProp: Jeff's little brother, David, comes off as a borderline case. He doesn't get much characterization and only a few lines. Justified in that not much is known about him other than him being "the normal one" who was a high-achiever, was favored by Jeff's parents, was beneath Backderf's notice at the time given his younger age, and has legally changed his name and lived in anonymity since Jeff's crimes were exposed.

* TheSeventies: The period Derf and Jeff spent in high school. The [[invoked]] ValuesDissonance of the time influenced the school's handling (or lack thereof) of Jeff's obvious problems. Also, young people hitchhiking was a regular thing (how Jeff met his first victim) and mimicking the severely-disabled was considered the height of comedy rather than DudeNotFunny.

** Derf notes that Jeff was very much this when recounting an incident where a kid fell and landed on his shoulder near Jeff. Jeff's response was to ''laugh'' at the kid's pain, rather than help him up or at least express concern, showing that he was always an unpleasant person at best even before he became a SerialKiller.

* {{Jerkass}}: Lloyd Figg, a crude, disruptive, kleptomaniacal student that Derf regards as the class psycho and someone [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Jeff]] is offended by. [[spoiler:He's even Derf's first guess when he hears that someone from his high school class is a serial killer.]]

* TeensAreShort: Averted completely, it's even lampshaded the fact that Jeff had a growth spurt early in the comic in which he was not only muscular but also tall.

Derf's comic, later expanded into a much longer graphic novel released in 2012, chronicles the years he spent together with Dahmer in high school, unknowingly witnessing his friend's [[FromNobodyToNightmare transformation]] into one of the most infamous [[SerialKiller Serial Killers]] in modern history. Along the way, Derf asks pertinent questions about why nobody – [[AdultsAreUseless especially the adults]] – ever figured out Dahmer was tormented by what in hindsight were painfully obvious personal demons.

* AdaptationNameChange: A number of supporting characters' names are not what they were in RealLife. ''Lloyd Figg'' was not really "Lloyd Figg", while "Neil" and "Kent" were likely also pseudonyms (only John/Derf and Mike go by their real names). Cindy Zlatka (the suicide discussed in the fishing scene) likely didn't go by that name.

* ParentalAbandonment: What triggers Jeff's final MoralEventHorizon. First, Lionel abandons Jeff by leaving the house and divorcing Joyce. (In fairness, Wiki/TheOtherWiki mentions that Lionel did continue to look after Jeff and urged him to turn his life around. Though Derf argues it was too late by this point.) Then, Joyce secretly moves to Wisconsin with David, leaving Jeff completely alone in the house. Derf considers these incidents to be devastating blows for Jeff, and links the abandonment by his parents to his desire to keep his victims from ever leaving him. It's probably no coincidence that Dahmer's murder of Steven Hicks took place shortly after these events.

** Lloyd Figg comes off as this. Subverted in that Lloyd merely grows up to be some troublemaker who still lives with his mom rather than a homicidal maniac. The "Class Psycho" was really just a very disturbed edgelord whose existence is to be the RedHerring.

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse. Derf makes it clear that he loses all sympathy for Dahmer as soon as he actually commits murder.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: There certainly wasn't any kind of professional attention towards Jeff, as Derf repeatedly points out. Derf speculates that the Dahmer family didn't consider getting Jeff help, since his mother had previously sought mental care herself with little results.
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: A point of sorts concerning Jeffrey Dahmer and Lloyd Figg. Jeff, while creepy, was mainly a quiet, withdrawn, somewhat nice-looking young man (with occasional bursts of BlackComedy-goofing off). Lloyd Figg, however, was a violent, cruel freak who was blatantly AxCrazy. Yet it was comparably-more normal-ish Jeff, not Lloyd, who turned out to be the gruesome cannibal serial killer.

* {{Nerd}}: Portrayed realistically. Jeff and the Dahmer Fan Club are social outcasts but with none of the academic awesomeness or stereotypical interests usually associated with that.

* AxCrazy: This book shows a more detailed insight into Jeff's psyche as he slowly loses his mind, eventually becoming a full-blown case of this.

* BlackComedyBurst: In the middle of what's mostly a very bleak and depressing story, there's the bit about Derf doing an impersonation for his school's talent show. An impersonation of [[spoiler:Adolf Hitler]]. It's amusing in a "should I really be laughing?" kind of way.

** There's even photos of this real-life event...here's actual [[https://i.ibb.co/MG6rjDL/Annotation-2020-05-21-031432.png Revere High yearbook pics]] of Derf's big blockbuster [[spoiler:Hitler]] routine.

* EvilCounterpart: Derf notes that he and Jeff had almost the exact same background. Both boys were the sons of chemists, both had one younger sibling (a brother), both lived in [[TheFifties Fifties]] ranch houses on hillsides. The main difference was that while Derf's family was stable and supportive, [[FreudianExcuse Jeff's was neither]][[note]]Unlike the movie and Graphic Novel, Derf was [[https://i.ibb.co/KqH67VX/teenderf.png also a mop-haired kid with glasses]] like Dahmer... Derf was basically a more well-adjusted, dark-haired Anti-Dahmer[[/note]].

* NightmareFetishist: In junior high, Jeff collects roadkill and dissolves the carcasses in pickle jars filled with acid, and later steals a fetal pig from the school lab to dissect. He moves on to live animals capable of feeling fear and pain, and leaves their bones strewn around an altar-like rock in the woods. Then Jeff realizes he is sexually aroused at the thought of corpses, his fantasies of which become so obsessive that he claims his first victim just weeks after graduating from high school.
** Slightly subverted in that Dahmer wasn't a regular animal-killer (apart from small things like frogs and bugs) and not a zoosadist in RealLife. The dog that was gutted and it's skull put on a stick was already dead when Jeff found it.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: After Derf's standup routine as [[spoiler:Hitler]], he goes to get some water and runs into Dahmer, having a brief chat with him. Derf makes a note that yes, he did indeed have a conversation with Jeffrey Dahmer while dressed as [[spoiler:Adolf Hitler]] and that in hindsight it's one of the most surreal moments of his life.

** Ultimately subverted when Jeff kills another dog and mounts its skull on a stake.
*** DoubleSubversion in that, in RealLife, the dog was already dead when he found it. Dahmer may have been a horrific SerialKiller 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.

* TheSeventies: The period Derf and Jeff spent in high school. The [[invoked]] ValuesDissonance of the time influenced the school's handling (or lack thereof) of Jeff's obvious problems.
** Also, young people hitchhiking was a regular thing (how Jeff met his first victim) and mimicking the severely-disabled was considered the height of comedy rather than DudeNotFunny.
* TheSociopath: Jeff of course, although Derf and his friends don't immediately realize it.

--->'''Neil:''' "Can you believe the Cindy Zlatka thing?...Who'd have figured she'd kill herself? I hear she blew her head half-off with her dad's .44 Magnum."
--->'''Jeff:''' "I wonder who found her body?"
--->'''Neil:''' "I dunno. What a waste. She was cute...Nice tits."

--->'''Neil:''' "Hey; Didya hear about Cindy Zlatka?"
--->'''Jeff:''' "Yeah."
--->'''Neil:''' "Suicide! Guess she blew her head half-off with her Dad's gun."
--->'''Jeff:''' "I wonder who found the body."
--->'''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?"

Derf's comic, later expanded into a much longer graphic novel, chronicles the years he spent together with Dahmer in high school, unknowingly witnessing his friend's [[FromNobodyToNightmare transformation]] into one of the most infamous [[SerialKiller Serial Killers]] in modern history. Along the way, Derf asks pertinent questions about why nobody – [[AdultsAreUseless especially the adults]] – ever figured out Dahmer was tormented by what in hindsight were painfully obvious personal demons.

* AdultsAreUseless: The whole point of the book. Jeff's parents are too consumed with their marital strife to notice his problems; his unstable mother eventually abandons him. Meanwhile, Jeff's teachers are either clueless or indifferent to his binge drinking at school. Derf speculates that if someone had taken notice and gotten Jeff help, he might not have led a happy life, but it would have been better than the path he took.