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Sketchbook drawing, circa 1978. This is the entire Dahmer Fan Club. I winnowed this group down to the four principal members. Top left: Dahmer. Top right: Kent. Below them, center: Mike. Below Mike, center: me. Bottom right: Neil.

This sketch is a proposed cover illustration for the Class of 1978 yearbook. The name of the school was Revere, and the team name was the Minutemen, so everything had a tiresome Revolutionary War theme to it. This is my take on the iconic Spirit of 76 painting, with, of course, Dahmer as the drummer on the left. Unfortunately, by this time, the yearbook editor was on to me and she turned this sketch down. Too bad. Would have been a classic!

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Original pencils for pages 92 and 93.

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In early August 1991, two weeks after the story of Dahmers crimes broke, I was reeling from the ghastly revelations and hounded by the swarm of media covering the story. I met with old pals Mike and Neil to commiserate about what was happeningthey were the only people who could understand exactly what I was going through. We met at Neils house, which was a mere two hundred yards from Dahmers boyhood home, now ringed with police tape as investigators sifted through the dirt on the Dahmer property searching for bone fragments.
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The three of us spent several hours sharing stories and memories of our strange friend. I filled fifteen sketchbook pages with notes and sketches as we chatted. As I did so, I realized for the first time what an incredible story this was and how uniquely positioned I was to tell it. These pages represent the genesis of My Friend Dahmer.

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