🗞 Dahmer's fanclub: a few illustrations.
📋 The Dahmer Fan Club was created in 1977 during Derf Backderf's junior year at Revere High School. It was started by a small inner circle of friends, including Backderf. The group formed because they became completely fascinated by Jeffrey Dahmer’s bizarre behavior in the school hallways. Dahmer used to fake violent epileptic fits, mock spastic movements, and pretend to have cerebral palsy. They created the club to egg him on, cheer him on, and treat his weird stunts like a joke. Backderf acted as the club's "Minister of Propaganda," drawing Dahmer into school newspaper cartoons, theater posters, and election flyers.
(Backderf drawing cartoons for The Lantern in his Siebert Hall dorm room, in 1982.)
📋 Here are a few drawings made by Backderf during his years of friendship with Jeffrey Dahmer:
Revere high school year book – 1978 (pg. 185). You can find the words such as "Baaaaa!" and " Dahmier" (mimicking a freng accent) in the drawing, referencing to Jeff Dahmer.
Yearbook cover featuring Dahmer as a drummer.
"The yearbook cover (above) was meant to be my "masterpiece" for Revere High School, playing on the "Minutemen" theme despite the area's lack of Revolutionary War history. This is my rendition of the iconic Spirit of '76, featuring a spazzing Dahmer as the drummer on the left. However, the yearbook advisor and editor recognized Dahmer in the sketch and rejected the cover, and the finished pen & ink drawing is now lost; only this sketch survives."— Derf Backderf. 🗞
Sketchbook drawing of the Dahmer club featuring members.
Above is a sketchbook drawing of the Fan Club from 1977 that we used as an official roster. For readers of the book, that's Dahmer up top, with Kent next to him. Mike is directly below them and I am below Mike, dead center. Neal is in the lower right. Kent, Mike, Neal and I were the four principle members. The others here were lesser participants that I winnowed out of the story to keep the cast of characters to a manageable number." — Derf Backderf. 🗞
Another drawing featuring Jeff Dahmer. "Celebrity spokesman."
Dahmer as a bag of groceries and Dahmer as a telephone pole.
And last but not least, a quite rare drawing made by Backderf featuring Dahmer in high school.
As the self-proclaimed Minister of Propaganda of the Dahmer Fan Club, I slipped Dahmer into dozens of drawings: cartoons in the school paper, theater posters, student council election flyers, sports pep posters, etc. Most of these alas, did not survive. But at one time there was indeed a massive football banner featuring Jeffrey Dahmer! It just doesn't get any more surreal than that." — Derf Backderf. 🗞
SOURCES: Control Out Of Control (yearbook photos), Wikipedia Article on My Friend Dahmer, Wikipedia Article on Derf Back Derf, My Friend Dahmer Blog (illustrations).
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
blakekathryn
gamechangershow
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
gracieabrams
