When Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book One hit shelves back in 2017 it was, as we all know, an indie phenomenon. Ostensibly a murder mystery wrapped in a coming-of-age story Monsters revealed thematic layer after layer the further the reader ventured into its pages. Our Tom Murphy called it “a tour de force” achievement when he reviewed it here at Broken Frontier in early 2018 and the book picked up award after award in the months after its release. All of this given added importance when considering not only was it Ferris’s debut book but also that its route to publication was such a protracted and troubled one.
For those yet to have immersed themselves in My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book One (seven years is a long time to have steered clear of an undisputed modern classic!) the story follows the 10-year-old Karen Reyes who, after the murder of her elderly neighbour Anka Silverberg, becomes determined to discover the reasons behind her death. The book borders on the meta with its presentation intended to be read as Karen’s own spiral-bound notepad diary, filled with her thoughts and drawings. In the latter case much of these include her re-creations of the horror magazine covers she loves so much and her copies of classic paintings she visits in the local art gallery.
Added to this mix is a rich supporting cast of characters inhabiting 1960s Chicago, including her loyal but unpredictable brother Deeze, her eccentric mother, neighbours like mobster “Laughing Jack” Gronan and his wife Sylvia, Deeze’s oddball friend Jeffrey “The Brain” Alvarez, her persecuted trans friend Francoise, kindred spirit Shelley, and her mysterious confidante Sandy whose very existence is open to conjecture. In short it’s a list of players so carefully and intricately observed that you feel each and every one of them could be the protagonist of their own graphic novel. Karen’s own sense of otherness leads to her portraying herself in the pages of her journal as something blending the traits of both a werewolf and a private detective.
This second volume picks up with the ramifications of a life-changing bereavement, gives us shocking revelations of family secrets and tragedy, further investigations into Anka’s past, and continues Karren’s journey into accepting her own sexuality. It’s a sprawling, intense, and constantly diverging story. One where story threads often disappear into the background, only to pop back up when least expected, and which is so packed with tangential plotlines that any attempt to provide a satisfying review synopsis seems doomed to failure. That latter aspect is not a bad thing. Quite the contrary.
Is everything resolved by Book Two’s end? Not really. Indeed this second volume poses more questions to add to its predecessor’s set-up. But, while that may arguably break some rules of accepted narrative structure, with My Favorite Things is Monsters it feels oddly appropriate. With the story being told entirely from Karen’s perspective this lends her meticulous recordings of events an extra level of authenticity. A prequel book has already been announced from Pantheon but you cannot help but feel that as poignant as the wrap-up is here that there is definitely room for a direct continuation of Karen and Deeze’s story and, indeed, that the door may have been left open for just that.
Ferris’s art delights once more, managing to evoke both the dark and gritty realities of events but also a quizzical and enquiring child’s eye view of the world. Panels are a more irregular choice rather than the default. What’s so important about Monsters from a formal vantage point is that the ways in which it asks us to perceive, interpret and analyse its world is based on so many different critical interactions with the page, from the very literal and direct through to the nuanced and even occasionally the slightly oblique. Its visual mix of grotesque caricature and scene-setting realism works in conjunction with this.
Ultimately this exploration of identity, the nature of truth, and the spectres that surround us, justifiably puts more emphasis on the journey rather than the destination. My Favorite Thing is Monsters is the product of a singular vision and a reminder that, once again, we are still only scratching the surface as to what comics as a form can do.
Emil Ferris (W/A) • Fantagraphics Books, $44.99
Review by Andy Oliver
