My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

September 11, 2017 11:12 AM - by Emil Ferris

Set against the tumultuous political backdrop of late ’60s Chicago, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes, filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster magazines iconography.
posted by latkes (6 comments total)

Fresh Air interview with author Emil Ferris.
posted by latkes at 11:19 AM on September 11, 2017

This book totally blew me away. I think this is among the most masterful comics I've ever read. Should definitely be regarded along with, for example, Watchmen, as a staggeringly deep, innovative, wise, beautiful masterwork. The fact that Emil Ferris can write so well and draw so well is just... amazing. The work feels deeply personal and specific, yet it touches so much: racism, the holocaust, classism, poverty, disease, and such a deeply real capturing of childhood.
posted by latkes at 11:24 AM on September 11, 2017

Man, what a book this is. I've had the release date for volume 2 on my calendar all year.
posted by jameaterblues at 6:54 PM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

I still need to finish reading this but I liked it more than I expected.

P.S. I am obligated to mention Emil Ferris will be at Small Press Expo this weekend in the D.C. area.
posted by darksong at 4:25 AM on September 12, 2017

There's a point where the book becomes like a vivid dream you're having and not like a book at all. If it stopped there, this would probably be the comic of the decade. After that, though, it continues. And starts to introduce some elements that feel cliche and unrealistic (the protagonist's abuse escalating to a near gang rape) as well as really cliche and unrealistic (the reveal that her best friend is imaginary). These decisions seem very odd to me in a book that is otherwise so amazing and fresh, and I'm not sure what to make of them. I'm still excited for the second part, but less excited than I would have been if the book had ended a hundred or so pages earlier.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:44 AM on September 12, 2017

Wow, the friend being imaginary totally went over my head?!! Now I get it. Jeeze. I had some moments of disliking the exaggerated feel: for me it was the weird elaborate sex slavery and abuse that the neighbor described in 30s Germany. But then I thought the author ultimately framed that as a possible exaggeration.
posted by latkes at 10:32 AM on September 12, 2017