My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf is Time's #4 non-fiction book of the year

Congratulations to Derf Backderf for getting his graphic non-fiction book, My Friend Dahmer, selected as Time's #4 non-fiction book of 2012!

Derf was a guest on Gweek in February. His interview is not to be missed!

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1606613036 Michael Manchester

“the sickness of that self-obsessed decade”

Thank goodness that’s not a problem anymore.
- Robert
  
  Surely every decade has a self-obsessed sickness?
- http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore
  
  “Children no longer obey their parents and every man wants to write a book.” Every generation looks for its own little scapegoat, while we solve the same problems (or don’t) over and over again.
millie fink

Well-deserved recognition. I read it a few months ago and highly recommend it. It’s a chilling humanization of a kid who looked, in retrospect, clearly on his way to becoming a monster.
- http://plagmada.org Tim H
  
  It makes Dahmer so human that the author has to go to lengths in the afterword to assure the reader that there is no sympathy with the violent acts themselves.
http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

I thought this came out a long time ago. Turns out a much shorter version came out in 2002, so I wasn’t dreaming it. Sounds pretty interesting.
signsofrain

This is an awesome book. It really does humanize Dahmer. You actually feel sorry for him. The guy was a teenage alcoholic (presumably to deal with his dark thoughts), he reeked of booze in school and the counsellor couldn’t even be bothered. His family, teachers, and friends all let him down.

I found it reminded me of Columbine, where Brooks Brown and his parents had pointed out to Eric’s parents and the police that Eric Harris was unstable, violent, and was making death threats. An investigation was promised to Brooks and his family and was never followed up on. Eric Harris slipped through the cracks and so we had Columbine. (Not discounting Klebold’s involvement but we know a lot more about Eric than we do Dylan from public information)

It makes me wonder if Adam Lanza slipped through the cracks too. If someone had been paying attention and giving a shit about that young man…
ChickieD

Got and it is amazing. I have a bit of thing about Dahmer. He seemed to have a pretty normal life and then did such horrible things. I read his dad’s book and it was interesting but didn’t give me any ideas about how he got from suburban teen to serial killer. I thought this book gave me the best idea of what was going on with him prior to the killings. And I loved loved loved the art. He totally captured the times.