Derf will present his new book, Dissidents: Autocrats! Vigiliantes! Communits! and Cartoonists! on Wednesday, October 7th at 7 pm at The Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights.

The Dissidents follows a group of real and influential political cartoonists who worked for the magazine The Masses--Art Young, Boardman Robinson, Cornelia Barns, and others, dominant in their day but now forgotten--as well as a fictional young German immigrant from Cleveland, Joe Hertle, who has come to New York to make his name.

Award-winning author Derf Backderf raises the bar for visual storytelling in this gripping, layered, and perceptive original graphic novel, told through the lens of the political cartoonists whose work shaped our history and also held a mirror to it. Finding a personal connection as a journalist who started out as a political cartoonist, he opens a door to our past and crafts a story that pulls from the strongest elements of his previous work. In The Dissidents, Backderf delivers an utterly unique account of U.S. history, making connections to the events of today as they relate to the seeds that were sown over a hundred years ago.

Derf Backderf is the international bestselling, award-winning author of My Friend Dahmer, Trashed, and Kent State. He is the recipient of the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. His weekly comic strip, The City, appeared in more than 150 newspapers for nearly 25 years. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and, like one of The Masses political cartoonists George Bellows, is an alumnus of Ohio State University.