Derf

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Derf is the pseudonym of American artist John Backderf, most famous for the comic strip The City, which has appeared in a number of alternative newspapers since 1990.

Backderf grew up in Richfield, Ohio, and was a school friend of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, which he recounts in the comic book My Friend Dahmer.

Backderf is one of the most widely published alternative cartoonists in the country. His comic strip, THE CITY, appears regularly in over 50 weekly newspapers. It debuted in the now-defunct Cleveland Edition in 1990 and quickly spread to papers coast-to-coast, including: The Village Voice, The Chicago Reader, Cleveland Scene, Miami New Times, Houston Press, Pittsburgh City Paper and Washington City Paper.

He grew up in Richfield, Ohio, a small farm town south of Cleveland and attended high school with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, which he later recounted in his comic book My Friend Dahmer, which was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2002. Following a brief stint at art school, Derf worked for a year on the back of a garbage truck, an experience that was the basis for his graphic novel, Trashed, which was also nominated for an Eisner.

He eventually returned to college, this time to Ohio State University, and for three years, he was the controversial and popular staff cartoonist for the school paper, The Lantern. In 1996 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the OSU School of Journalism, one of but 6 members.

After graduation, he worked as a cartoonist-illustrator for the Palm Beach Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon Journal. He has won over 50 awards for his newspaper work, including a prestigious Bronze Medal from the Society of Newspaper Design. He was a member of the newsroom team for the Akron Beacon Journal that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1995.

He has contributed to many well-known national publications, including Playboy, The Wall St. Journal and Progressive Magazine. His manic images have also graced posters, t-shirts and CD covers.

His work has been displayed in many galleries and museums both here and abroad. In 1995, he had a large solo show at Altered Image Gallery in Cleveland and in 1999 the Akron Art Museum put on a retrospective of his work, titled Apocalyptic Giggles: The Industrial Cartoon Humor of Derf.

Of his many book projects, his most recent are: The City: The World’s Most Grueling Comic Strip (SLG Publishing, 2003), Attitude: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists (NBM, 2002), Trashed (SLG Publishing, 2002) and My Friend Dahmer (Derfcity Comics, 2002). Of the last two, TimeMagazine.com says, “The funniest book of the year... followed by the spookiest.”