Trashed TPB
Derf Backderf (w), (a)
Abrams Comicarts

Liz says: Sometimes I get asked what my favourite autobiographical graphic novels are, and this happens: I say, ‘Well, there’s this one about a guy who went to high school with Jeffrey Dahmer, they sort of hung out together. It was really good though!’ and the customer looks at me like I might tell them that drowning puppies is also really fun and they should try it. ‘Trashed’ is the follow-up of sorts to ‘My Friend Dahmer’ and is the second autobiographical outing by Derf Backderf. This time Backderf, a seasoned cartoonist whose syndicated comic strip ‘The City’ ran for twenty-five years in one hundred and forty alternative newspapers, revisits a time in his early twenties when he worked as a trash-collector. The tagline is ‘An Ode to the Crap Job of all Crap Jobs’, and boy does it sound like it. Despite the fact that most of us don’t have to regularly get hands-on with mountains of stinking garbage, it’s an ultimately relatable tale for anyone who’s ever worked a soul-sucking job. Reading ‘Trashed’ reminded me that what I found so captivating about ‘My Friend Dahmer’ is Backderf’s hilariously nauseating, unflinching and profound examination of his subject matter, no matter how dark or stomach-churning it may be.