Sunday, April 27, 2014

Off to France!





Comix fans in France! Don't miss the Salon du Livre d'Arras on May 1. I'll be there all day, along with the rest of the Éditions çà et là collective: Joseph Lambert, Ulli Lust, Li-chin Lin, Mana Neyestani, Brooke Gladstone and Joff Winterhart! 


Afterwards, I'll be doing a week of signings in Paris and a few other locales. See the full list below. This will be my third tour in France in the past 12 months, but my last for awhile, so be there or be square.

Derf Backderf (Mon Ami DahmerPunk Rock & mobile homes)

Jeudi 1er mai : toute la journée au Salon du livre d'Arras
Vendredi 2 mai : Super Héros, 175 rue Saint Martin, Paris 3e, 17h
Samedi 3 mai : un petit doublé avec

Folies d'Encre à Montreuil, 11h à 13h

Comics Records, 76 Rue Charlot, Paris 3e, 16h à 18h

Mardi 6 mai : Le Migou à Auch, 14h
Mercredi 7 mai : l'Usage du Monde, 32 Rue de la Jonquière, Paris 17e, 18h30

저 친구 다머

That's what the title "My Friend Dahmer" will look like translated into Korean, the next foreign edition due out, sometime in 2014!

I thought a Japanese publisher would be the first to snap it up for an Asian market, since they're such huge comix fans in Japan, but, hey, I'll take it. It's such a fun thrill to lay eyes on one of these translated editions for the first time.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Conservo-blogger tees off on MFD!

Here's a first. A rightwing blogger weighs in on MFD

Surprise! She doesn't like it.

The blogger in question is a housewife and blogger from suburban Chicago. Her grand cause is public libraries, particularly her local branch. She has been waging war on this poor institution for several years, specifically because it, like virtually all public libraries, doesn't have filters on its public computers, so pedophiles can use them to view child porn. Really. Not that anyone is doing that, there's just the possibility that they can. This has become a total obsession with this homeschooler mommy. She's also one of those book-yanking buffoons who believes all objectionable tomes should be removed from the shelves.

She has peppered her local library with Freedom of Information requests, has a Facebook fan page where she logs her complaints and the library's many "crimes", gets in arguments with library board members at meetings, confronts librarians on the job and tapes their exchanges with her phone, pulls objectionable books off the shelves and rants about them, and makes a general nuisance of herself, all with an air of holier-than-thou pomposity and a  toothy grin. It's all the usual things gadflies do. Seems like every town has at least one. Those poor librarians must cringe when she stomps through the front entrance every day.

She weighs in here on MFD. Why? From her statements in the video she posted on Youtube, it's mainly because the American Library Assoc. gave MFD an Alex Award, which honors the best books for teen readers every year. Right in her wheelhouse and her suspicions (and hackles) are immediately raised. Librarians love it and it's a book about a serial killer. It must be objectionable and inappropriate, right?

She starts off by stating how much she dislikes graphic novels. Nothing like dropping those preconceptions, honey! She also hates my art. "This guy's artwork just grosses me out."  

She admonishes her "audience" (which appears to be her off-camera co-blogger and a kid, very likely her own, who sends in questions) because they don't know who Dahmer is. She then proceeds to give a laundry list of factually incorrect statements about his life and crimes! She even manages to work in that Darwinism is to blame for Dahmer's spree! Holy crap, what a maroon.

Among the highlights:

She places blame on ME for Dahmer's crimes, because I didn't intervene when I was 16. "If (Derf) had been more aware of his role in society, perhaps he could have saved a bunch of people from being sliced up and eaten. Don't think he's a great guy. I think he's a jerk"

Oh. OK. Apparently, she missed the major theme of the book, about indifference and culpability, and the brutal honesty that I employ to discuss these issues. The overall tone of regret that infuses the book also sails right past her. Not surprisingly, our conservo-blogger here is not the most perceptive of readers. 

She also worries that teenagers who read this book could be turned into roadkill loving pervs!  "What kind of kid is reading this? What if it's someone who is dealing with this kind of issue? What it it's a kid who didn't think he'd be sexually turned on by killing animals and then gets a look at this and thinks, oh, that might be fun!"

Now, THAT'S a new one! Comix turning kids into pervs. Calling Dr. Werthem!

In the end, she grudgingly confesses it's not the outrageous book about murder and necrophilia she obviously hoped it would be when she plucked it off the shelf. 

"It's a sad one, but I see how it could start a good conversation. So I'm not gonna give this one a total thumbs down. It's not terrible."

I debated it, but I won't post the video. I'm not giving her the hits, because I'm guessing she doesn't get many.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

France Book Tour 2014!




Thurs., May 1 
Signing, all day
Arras, France 

Fri., May 2
Signing, 5 pm
Librairie Super Héros
175 Rue St. Martin, Paris

Sat., May 3
Signing, 11am to 1 pm
Folie d'Encre bookstore
Mobtreuil

Sat., May 3
Signing, 4 to 6 pm
Comics and Records
76 rue Charlot, Paris

Tues., May 6
Signing, Noon to 6 pm
Le Migou bookstore
Auch

Weds. May 7
Talk and signing, 6:30 pm
L'Usage du Monde bookstore
32 Rue de la Jonquière


Paris

Thursday, April 3, 2014

My Friend Dahmer book trailers


I get a big kick out of these. MFD has become a standard in many high school curriculum, thanks mainly to the American Library Assoc., which has championed the book right from the beginning. MFD has been on its recommended reading list for teens for three years straight, along with several other honors and lists. It's been amazing. Probably accounts for at least two printings of the book.

A staple of high school English classes these days is the homemade book trailer. Instead of a book report, make a short video about the book of your choice. There have been a number of these popping up in my news alert lately. A pretty fun assignment for high school. Wish we could have done one of these back in 1978! We did make some goofy films. All the members of the Dahmer Fan Club were involved in these. But not Jeff, unfortunately. Friend Neal has copies, and I've seen them recently. They're totally nonsensical, but it's a hoot watching our young selves clown around, in real life, just as I depict our antics in the book.

Above is one is one of the better trailers, although it's hard not to crack up at the stuffed animal road kill!