Derf Backderf is the bestselling, award-winning author of My Friend Dahmer and Trashed. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
“[Backderf’s] expertly crafted chronicle of this defining moment in
U.S. history serves as a deeply moving elegy for the victims.
Readers may also draw from it sobering parallels to the deep
divisions of contemporary times, again dangerously rife with media
noise and misinformation muddying the waters.”
*Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review*
“An incendiary corrective to the myths and misconceptions
surrounding these events and a memorial to the lives lost or
forever altered that should be required reading for all
Americans.”
*Library Journal - STARRED review*
? “An excellent graphic retelling of a climactic moment in American
history . . . Four dead in Ohio, indeed—but Backderf’s vivid,
evocative book does a splendid job of keeping their memories
alive.
*Kirkus reviews, STARRED Review*
"Deeply researched and gut-wrenching…”
*The New Yorker*
“One of the masterpieces of the medium...a work of devastating
emotional impact.”
*Forbes*
“The meticulous research is shown in more than two dozen pages of
notes, confirming the sources from the Kent State University May 4
Collection about the shootings, but also Backderf’s personal
research and interviews.”
*The Akron Beacon Journal*
“Kent State is meticulously researched…Backderf is in total
artistic control of his material.”
*Cleveland Review of Books*
“Derf Backderf brings historical context and a propulsive sense of
narrative to this graphical history of the Kent State
shootings.”
*book critic*
“The book not only illuminates history but also brings a form of
closure to an unforgivable, inexcusable episode.”
*The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette*
“Kent State, unfolding in sober black and white, is as passionate
as it is meticulous in its treatment of the May 4, 1970 killings of
four unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard.”
*The New York Times Book Review*
“While removed from the events by a half-century, by the time the
memoir spirals into the final spasm of chaos, the tragedy these
boldly drawn panels feel fresh as if from yesterday's news.”
*PopMatters*
“Surely the graphic novel of the year, and an early entry onto the
next Best of the Decade lists.”
*Forbes*
“A masterwork of graphic history, and the most sharply drawn
commentary regarding the current moment in American history . . .
meticulous down to the last detail . . . Kent State is a poignant
and powerful memorial for the four students who were mercilessly
and needlessly killed that day in Ohio.”
*The Beat*
“Derf’s new graphic novel Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio has much to
offer in our current climate . . . The result is a work of
journalism and art that shows the reader what happened 50 years
ago, and why it’s all-too-sadly relevant today. During a time where
widespread Black Lives Matter protests have been sweeping the
nation in the wake of the heinous killings of George Floyd, Breonna
Taylor, and others at the hands of law enforcement, the parallels
are clear.”
*Cleveland Scene*
“I was rendered nearly breathless by the expert storytelling and
breakneck pacing in this epic retelling of that pivotal event in
American history. [Backderf] reveals the day-to-day moments of
those oh-so-tenderly young people whose heartbreaking deaths would
inflict a mournful impact of the American soul. Derf helps us
imagine what it might be to know Allison, Jeff, Sandy and Bill,
and, horrifically, what it may have been like to ‘find them dead on
the ground.’”
*Comic Book Creator*
“When reading Kent State, it’s easy to imagine it being drafted as
a response to our moment, but the quality of history and rich
network of stories testify to this being a labor of many
years—albeit one with impeccable (or horrifying, depending on your
perspective) timing . . . Kent State attempts to set the record
straight, and the combined excellence of research and storytelling
makes it easy to witness both the tragic loss of life and senseless
police actions that were never punished.”
*ComicBook.com*
“Delivers an emotional wallop.”
*WKSU (Kent State NPR affiliate)*
“Powerful. A deep journalistic dive into the still-resonant
tragedy.”
*Washington Post*
“This book is amazingly detailed and informative. Which is what
makes it all the more horrifying. Most of us know the basic
outlines of the events of May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in
northeast Ohio: Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on unarmed
students protesting the Vietnam War, killing four. But there’s a
lot more to the story, and Backderf tells it. He finds every
interview, every news story, every autopsy report. He takes you
into the lives of various students and Guardsmen days before the
event, allowing you to get to know each one personally.”
*Star Tribune*
“Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is a remarkable achievement, the
product of a cartoonist at the top of his game telling a story he’s
uniquely suited to tell at precisely the time it needs to be
told.”
*SOLRAD*
“Deeply researched . . . one of the year’s most tragic and
insightful books of any genre . . . painfully relevant today.”
*Publishers Weekly, Graphic Novel Critics Poll*
“Derf Backderf brings historical context and a propulsive sense of
narrative to this graphical history of the Kent State shootings . .
. Backderf’s noodly style uncannily evokes that era, and his sparse
palette (black and white with some restrained gray shading) imbues
his tale with force and urgency. His attention to the guardsmen’s
side of things—their lack of training in de-escalation, systemic
hostility and paranoia toward anti-war demonstrators—strikes a
resonant chord in a year marked by images of police and National
Guard troops brutalizing Black Lives Matter protesters.”
*NPR Book Concierge, Books We Love*
“The success of Kent State lies in Derf’s skills as a cartoonist
and as a storyteller. His style is distinct, bridging that gap
between the realistic and the exaggerated. Moments such as the
burning ROTC building are powerful thanks to Derf’s use of
contrast, the fire burning bright, illuminating the canisters of
tear gas, a torn peace shirt, and a long shadow of the bell used as
a rallying point. The tension builds and builds and builds and then
. . . is released. In a harrowing final act that, even knowing what
was coming, brought me to tears because of the work Derf had done
in the preceding pages, Kent State reminds us why this story is
still being told 50 years later and why it remains powerful and
tragic. Kent State is a marvel of a book.”
*Multiversity Comics*
“This is one of the books you need to be reading on civil protest,
and on violence.”
*Medium, "Five Graphic Novels You Need to Read Now"*
“Backderf has delivered a career-defining work here that will
likely be required reading in many a college history course in the
future.”
*Four Color Apocalypse*
“Humanizes the victims and breaks down the events with clarity and
anger. It unfortunately remains as timely as ever.”
*The Comics Journal, Best Comics of 2020*
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