KENT STATE: FOUR DEAD IN OHIO – A Review of the Latest Graphic Novel by John “Derf” Backderf

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by John “Derf” Backderf is a graphic novelization of the four days leading up to the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970, where bystanders were shot by the Ohio National Guard, which had been called upon to suppress student protests of the war in Vietnam. Derf is a storied underground comic-book artist, but this will […]

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The City Life: John “Derf” Backderf talks about his his early comic strip days in Cleveland, and a new Web comic

Derf found his cartoon voice circa 1990 in the Cleveland Edition with The City, a gravelly mash of Rust Belt angst, vulgarity, vunerability and glee. He went on to draw/write the critically acclaimed My Friend Dahmer and Trashed. Sort of the Josephine Baker of the comic book world, he’s really big in France and Belgium, where he travels four times […]

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