My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is a two-volume debut graphic novel by American writer Emil Ferris. It portrays a young girl named Karen Reyes investigating the death of her neighbor in 1960s Chicago. Ferris started working on the graphic novel after contracting West Nile virus and becoming paralyzed at age forty. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for writing and began the graphic novel to help her recover in 2010, taking six years to create 700 pages. The work draws on Ferris's childhood growing up in Chicago, and her love of monsters and horror media. The process of creating the book was difficult, with Ferris working long hours, living frugally, and encountering publishing setbacks, such as a cancelation by one publisher and the temporary seizure of the first volume's printing at the Panama Canal.
Cover of the first volume of the graphic novel, featuring Karen's neighbor Anka
The graphic novel is presented as a personal diary in a lined spiral notebook.
Francisco Goya was a childhood influence on Ferris. Pictured is his etching, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.
Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, has praised the graphic novel. When Spiegelman—whom Ferris has cited as an influence—told Ferris that he loved it, she "started crying like a big dumb baby".
Emil Ferris is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer. Ferris debuted in publishing with her 2017 graphic novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. The novel tells a coming-of-age story of Karen Reyes, a girl growing up in 1960s Chicago, and is written and drawn in the form of the character's notebook. The graphic novel was praised as a "masterpiece" and one of the best comics by a new author.
Ferris at Miami Book Fair 2016