In the comic Derf notes he does not even recall the last time he met Dahmer.
The fourth primary member of the fan club, Kent, has been written out of the script altogether, a great relief to me since the real Kent, who I also still count as a close friend, is aghast at any link at all to the Dahmer story. As I write in the footnotes, adult Neil carries around a great deal of regret and shame over his teenage antics. It was Neil who, at Jeffs urging, came to the Dahmer house when Burlman was due for a visit, and hid in the coat closet to hear Stan in action. Both Mike and I shook our heads and laughed at that. Neil, in the screenplay, is described as the most empathetic of the group and a reluctant participant in the gags. In reality, it was Neil behind virtually all of it. Unfortunately, Marcs screenplay makes me even more of an asshole than in the book, and elevates me to the evil mastermind of the Burlman pranks.
While film Joyce is still troubled, its a toned down version. Joyce in the graphic novel is a deeply troubled soul and is utterly self-absorbed, with Backderf stating that she effectively abandoned Jeff and guilt-tripped him into not revealing her whereabouts to her ex-husband.He also seems to waver between genuine concern and feigned guffaws during Jeff's "Command Performance" at the Mall. This is less-apparent but hinted with Derf in the end, though he feebly tries to placate Jeff with "We were just having fun" and attempting to gift his weird "Jeff Drawings" to Jeff (who refuses).He even tells one of the guys "He isn't a side show attraction". Adaptational Heroism: In the film, Neil goes through a Heel Realization and recognizes that their treatment of Jeff is exploitative, apologizing to Jeff as being inappropriate.Dahmer's prom date in the movie was played by a more conventionally ◊ attractive woman ◊ whereas in Real Life and the Graphic Novel, she was more frumpy ◊ and plain ◊ note They try to make up for this by having the actress portray her as an awkward Hollywood Homely with a jerky walk.Derf probably went sans-glasses in the Graphic Novel due to looking almost ◊ indistinguishable from Jeffrey Dahmer in the original comic. Only the earlier comic version was accurate). The Graphic Novel has him similar to Real Life but glasses-free (He's the guy on the upper-left of the cover shown above. Derf Backderf was in Real Life, a dorky-looking kid ◊ with Nerd Glasses and not.well.More straight-forward with the dog Dahmer considered killing ◊ but thankfully didn't ◊ note Then again Derf's drawing style makes every sentient, whenever human or critter, weird or ugly-looking.In the movie he is a slender, androgynous, scary kid ◊ with long stringy wild hair who resembles a more unhinged Charles Manson wannabe. In the comic he is a very ugly fat guy ◊ with curly-hair, sideburns and geeky fashion sense.
#MY FRIEND DAHMER MOVIE IMAGE SERIAL#
Like the comic, the film follows "Derf" Backderf ( Alex Wolff), an aspiring artist who befriends his troubled classmate, the future serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer ( Ross Lynch). A 2017 film adaptation of the graphic novel My Friend Dahmer, directed by Marc Meyers.