Lari's Bookshelf

Click to view on Amazon My Friend Dahmer  by Derf Backderf This is a horrible story. It really is. But My Friend Dahmer is a graphic novel written and drawn extremely well. The author/artist recounts his interactions with Jeffrey Dahmer in high school. Dahmer typically goes unnoticed by his teachers and peers. Sure, he is weird. He has this knack for acting like he has cerebral palsy and yelling in the library just to get the librarian riled up. (Note: I did not particularly enjoy the author's portrayal of the librarian, but I digress.) Dahmer likes to collect dead animals he finds, and strip them to the bone, just to see what's inside. But he also enjoys the company of friends at school. The bizarre interactions between him and his friends further illustrates just how strange Dahmer is, even though he is beneath everyone's radar. The story follows his family problems, dark fantasies, and his alcoholism in high school. He tries to numb the darkness within...

Who says graphic novels can't be stunning? Artistic? Moving? Graphic novels are just another medium to tell a story. And people who knock the format don't understand they are knocking a vessel, a medium for storytelling, and not the actual stories themselves. This is a total injustice to some fabulous works of art out there. The graphic novel memoir is one of my favorite mediums for storytelling. Here are some beautiful graphic novels that I'd eventually like to own. Blankets "Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith." - GoodReads Rating: 4.09 The Complete Persepolis "Here, in one volume, is Marjane Satrapi's best-selling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips. 'Per...