John Backderf (born October 1959 in Richfield, Ohio) is an American cartoonist, also known as Derf or Derf Backderf. He is most famous for his recent graphic novels, especially My Friend Dahmer, the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip The City, which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990–2014. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. Backderf has been based in Cleveland, Ohio, for much of his career.
