History ComicBook / MyFriendDahmer

* PetTheDog: In the middle of the book, Jeffrey comes across a dog in the street and takes it into the woods with the intention of killing and vivisecting it. Jeffrey can't bring himself to gut the dog and lets it go free. Derf notes this is the last time Jeffrey would ever show mercy.

** The first time Derf feels truly frightened of Jeffrey is is on the way to the stunt at Summit Mall, when Jeffrey gulps down an entire six-pack during a ten minute drive.

-> "Some instinct warned me off. I was always wary of Dahmer. I was willing to hang out with him at school, but there was no way I was going to forge a closer friendship."

* DisappearedDad: Jeff's father Lionel frequently made himself absent to escape his volatile marriage to Joyce, which does no help his son in the slightest. Like all the other adults in his life, he misses the warning signs of Jeff's increasingly grisly behavior.
* EvilFormerFriend: Dahmer qualifies to John, although he states he always felt Dahmer was creepy and that Dahmer never had any real friends.

* TheAlcoholic: Dahmer routinely cuts class and drinks copious amounts of alcohol to numb his homicidal urges. The teachers remain oblivious to this even after Dahmer shows up late to class stinking of booze. They are ''so'' oblivious that Dahmer considers it ''safer'' to drink at school (in the days before public schools adopted zero-tolerance policies for alcohol) than at home where his parents could catch him.
** The first time Derf realizes just how far gone Dahmer is is on the way to the stunt at Summit Mall, when Dahmer gulps down an entire six-pack during a ten minute drive.

* TheAlcoholic: Dahmer routinely cuts class and drinks copious amounts of alcohol to numb his homicidal urges. The teachers remain oblivious to this even after Dahmer shows up late to class stinking of booze. They are ''so'' oblivious that Dahmer considers it ''safer'' to drink at school (in the days before schools adopted zero-tolerance policies for alcohol) than at home where his parents could catch him.

* TheAlcoholic: Dahmer routinely cuts class and drinks copious amounts of alcohol to numb his homicidal urges. The teachers remain oblivious to this even after Dahmer shows up late to class stinking of booze. They are ''so'' oblivious that Dahmer considers it ''safer'' to drink at school than at home where his parents could catch him.

* TheAlcoholic: Dahmer routinely cuts class and drinks copious amounts of alcohol to numb his homicidal urges. The teachers remain oblivious to this even after Dahmer shows up late to class stinking of booze. They are ''so'' oblivious that Dahmer arrives to school early and leaves late at night just to drink, as he thought it would be ''safer'' to drink at school than at home where his parents could catch him.

* TheAlcoholic: Beginning in high school, Dahmer begins to drink copious amounts of alcohol to numb his homicidal urges. That this happened under the noses of his parents and the staff at Revere High -- with Dahmer frequently being late to class and reeking of booze -- is pointed out by Backderf more than once.

-->-- "I'm often asked why I never spoke up. Why I didn't try to get Dahmer help... My friends and I, we were just clueless small-town kids, wrapped up in our own lives. And none of us had a hint about what was ''really'' going on in his head."

--> "I'm often asked why I never spoke up. Why I didn't try to get Dahmer help... My friends and I, we were just clueless small-town kids, wrapped up in our own lives. And none of us had a hint about what was ''really'' going on in his head."

Derf's graphic novel chronicles the years of Dahmer's adolescence, starting from his first year of junior high to until a short time after his first murder in 1978. Derf and his friends unwittingly witness Dahmer's transformation from a young social outcast to an emotionally unstable [[TheAlcoholic Alcoholic]] to the most depraved SerialKiller in recent memory.

* ConsummateLiar: To the point where Dahmer talks an aide into letting him visit ''the Vice President of the United States''.

* PetTheDog: In the middle of the book, Jeffrey comes across a dog in the street and takes it into the woods with the intention of killing and vivisecting it. Jeffrey can't bring himself to gut the dog and lets it go free. Backderf says this is the last time in Jeffrey's live that he ever showed mercy.

* EvilFormerFriend: Dahmer qualifies to John, although he states he always felt Dahmer was creepy and that Dahmer had any real friends.

During his teenaged years in Bath Township, Ohio, aspiring cartoonist John "Derf" Backderf attended Revere High School. He led a normal existence, with a close circle of friends, a supportive family, and aspirations of abandoning small-town life after entering an art college. He went through the same triumphs and travails of adolescence as most of his peers. There were no details in his life which stood out in any negative or significant way.

During his teenaged years in Bath Township, Ohio, aspiring cartoonist John Backderf attended Revere High School. He led a normal existence, with a close circle of friends, a supportive family, and aspirations of abandoning small-town life after entering an art college. He went through the same triumphs and travails of adolescence as most of his peers. There were no details in his life which stood out in any negative or significant way.

* ConsummateLiar: To the point where Dahmer talks an aide into letting him visit the ''Vice President of the United States''.

* ConsummateLiar: To the point where Dahmer talking himself into visit with the ''Vice President of the United States''.

* EvilFormerFriend: Dahmer qualifies to John, although he states repeatedly that Dahmer never had any real friends.

* DisappearedDad: Jeff's father Lionel is absent to escape his volatile marriage to Joyce, which does no help his son in the slightest. Like all the other adults in his life, he misses the warning signs of Jeff's increasingly grisly behavior.