Derf Backderf is a writer and artist whose graphic novels explore everything from the lives of sanitation workers (Trashed) to Derf’s actual high school relationship with future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (My Friend Dahmer). His latest book, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, tells the story of the Kent State shooting in personal, often wrenching detail. In this conversation, Derf explains the challenges of rendering the event visually, the research behind some of the book’s incredible revelations, the psychological and ethical struggle of writing about Jeffrey Dahmer, and the wider project of “history as graphic novel.”
