my favorite thing is monsters vol 1 by emil ferris

Hence, the story of the graphic novel’s production is nearly as interesting as the book itself. Ferris sites art-making as being critically important to her survival of childhood disability as well as subsequent physical challenges. Not only are EC-inspired horror comic covers recreated in ballpoint pen by Emil’s protagonist, but so are many significant paintings that hang in the Art Institute of Chicago.Įmil was profoundly shaped by the world-renowned collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Journalists have noted how the book parallels themes of monstrosity and ‘otherness.’ The main character’s obsession with B-movies of the Hammer and Universal varieties and EC horror magazines is evident. The book is autobiographically infused as Emil - like her protagonist Karen Reyes - was witness to the highly charged political and social climate of that time. Her book - which presents itself as the lined notebook diary of a pre-teen self-avowed werewolf who questions her sexual identity - is set in Chicago in the 1960’s. Rendered in a kaleidoscopically and breath takingly virtuosic visual style that combines panel sequences and montage, my favorite thing is monsters is a revelatory work of striking originality and unnerving power.Emil Ferris is a graphic novelist whose first book ‘My Favorite Thing Is Monsters’ has been praised by critics since its publication in 2017.

When karen's investigation takes us back to anka's life in Nazi Germany, the reader discovers how the personal and the political and the past and the present converge, and how even the good can harbor a touch of the monstrous. Gronan, a Mobster Franklin, a Drag Queen and Mr.Ĭhugg, a ventriloquist. Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late 1960s chicago and narrated by 10-year-old karen reyes, monsters is told through a fictional graphic diary employing, the iconography of B-movie horror imagery and pulp mongter magazines.Īs the precocious karen reyes tries to solve the murder of her beautiful and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, anka silver berg, a holocaust survivor, we watch the interconnected and fascinating stories of those around her unfolt : her brother deeze, who is facing the draft and who is tortured by something mysterious in his past Sam 'hotstep' silverberg, a jazz musician Mr. Emil Ferris's debut graphic novel, my favorite thing is monsters is a murder mystery, a family drama, a sweeping historical epic, a psychological thriller about monsters-real and imagined, within and without.

My favorite thing is monsters vol 1 by emil ferris