The graphic novel that I chose to write a response on is My Friend Dahmer and I will start off with what I believe to be the only positive about the novel. I really liked the artist work on the panels that contained no words. I find it very impressive for someone to take a bunch of wordless panels because sometimes pictures don’t have to contain words in order to understand what is going on in the story. The resemblance to Jeffery Dahmer in the artist artwork is uncanny! A superb job was done on the imitation of what Dahmer would look like in a cartoon form from the expressionless face, the glasses, and the hair, all of it looks very good.
This graphic novel turned me off though because I don’t like creepy stories, horror stories, or depressing stories in general and this was too sad a story in my opinion. I found it especially creepy in the wordless panels where Dahmer finds the dead cat on the side of the road and takes it back to what I like to call his, “secret lair.” I admit that when a bunch of kids his age came along wondering why he had a dead cat and were curious as to what he was going to do with I felt slight bad for Dahmer’s character. The reason I felt bad for Dahmer was because in that moment he appeared to be the kid that wanted to fit in and show something cool that he was interested in and the other kids shunned him because his hobby was so weird to them. On the other hand I cannot blame them for the reaction that they had because having a fascination for dead things and seeing how fast they can decompose in chemicals is not something that can be deemed normal.
When I first heard the story of Jeffery Dahmer I was very appalled and creeped out and thought that he was nothing more than a very evil man. Knowing what I know now about psychological disorders and the fact that Dahmer was a sociopath I was able to have a better understanding but I still had no sympathy for him because of course he had no sympathy for his victims and he was very gross and disgusting to me.
This novel went along with the theme that I have somewhat learned from this class and that is that graphic novels to me, appear to touch upon nothing but very dark and sad story lines and I really hate that. I think the world is filled enough with the dark and depressing because we live in a sinful world and it seems easy to find the darkness and no one wants to focus on the positive or the lighter stuff. It was not just this book that I read but the books we had to read in class were very depressing to me and I don’t like that. I think after this graphic novel I don’t think I will be touching another graphic novel and it’s nothing against those who do enjoy them but I’ve discovered that this genre just isn’t for me overall.
Theresa Williams's Comics Lab 