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Meet John Backderf

Derf sold his first cartoon, a nude portrait of his sixth grade teacher, for $2 dollars to a classmate who used it for unspeakable purposes. Today his comic strip, The City, is one of the most widely-read alternative cartoons, appearing regularly in nearly 60 publications, including; The LA New Times,The Chicago Reader, Dallas Observer, Denver Westword, St. Louis Riverfront Times, Baltimore City Paper and the Cleveland Scene.

The cartoonist, who works out of an unheated, attic studio in his Cleveland home, grew up in a rural, small town in Ohio and went to high school with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. A comic book story about his friendship with Dahmer was recently published by Fantagraphics Books.

An art school dropout, Derf worked on a garbage truck before deciding to give cartooning a try. He attended Ohio State University, where he drew political cartoons for the school paper for three years and caused such controversy school officials put a 1-year limit on all future cartoonists. After graduation, he landed a similar position on a paper in Florida but was fired after two years for, as the editor put it, "general tastelessness." He moved to Cleveland and The City debuted in the now-defunct Cleveland Edition in 1990. A year later, he began selling it to other alternative papers.

Derf's images have also graced t-shirts and cd covers. His manic illustrations have appeared in all manner of publications ranging from Guitar Player magazine to The Wall St. Journal.