Dave Dahl's Troubles Become a Comic Book

Killer Bread founder's trial scheduled for October

Milwaukie's famous and troubled baker Dave Dahl now has a court date. His jury trial for crashing his Cadillac Escalade into sheriff's cruisers in November is now scheduled for Oct. 7.

The founder of Dave's Killer Bread also has new attention: An artist has turned the story of his breakdown into a comic book.

"The Story of Dave Dahl" by Lucas Adams debuted last month in Modern Farmer magazine.

It's a melancholy series of pencil drawings, which hews closely to the reporting done by WW in a January profile of Dahl's rise and fall.

This isn't the first time Dahl's had a comic book. He rose to prominence through cartoons.

Dave's Killer Bread, the organic bakery he returned from prison to lead, portrayed him as a cheerful cartoon character on its label. The decision to market the troubled ex-con as a mascot created big risks.

Former WW illustrator Ryan-Alexander Tanner drew a guitar-playing Dave, first in this newspaper in 2005, then for the bread bags a year later.

In 2010, Dave's Killer Bread released a coloring book with an anti-drug message; the drawings, again by Alexander-Tanner, showed a cartoon Dahl frolicking with mischievous grains and sprouts.

That was before his November encounter with Washington County Sheriff's deputies, which exposed how Dahl's life had begun to spiral in recent years.

Dahl pleaded not guilty to 15 charges in February, including first-degree attempted assault, two counts of second-degree assault, and two counts of hit-and-run.

WWeek 2015

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