Note: Due to a website hiccup, 3 days of posts disappeared. This is the second version of the original post — I’m sure I was brilliant the first time around, but it’s lost in internet purgatory.
One of the best — if not the best — graphic novels of 2016 was My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris. Drawn as if by one of those multi-colored ballpoint pens and occasionally colored pencils, the massive tome appears as a reproduced set of lined paper notebooks. The artist/storyteller? a 10-year-old girl, struggling with biracial identity, sexual identity, and life in Chicago in the late 1960s. One thing she knows for sure: she’s a werewolf detective.
Along the way Ferris gives us some art history, a clear deep dive into Famous Monsters of Filmland (at least as an influence), and then… a murder mystery that involves the Holocaust. It’s a magnificent, complex narrative with only one flaw: it ends on a cliffhanger.
A flaw? No, that’s an unfair criticism, because Ferris is a creator of deep sensitivity and empathy. If you haven’t read My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, you owe it to yourself. Because soon enough, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book 2 will be here. Right at the beginning of Comic-Con, Fantagraphics was able to make the announcement that it’s finally ready. Just as we shall serve no wine before its time, Fantagraphics could not rush Ferris in completing her masterpiece.
Just… trust me.
From Fantagraphics Books:
Acclaimed cartoonist Emil Ferris and Fantagraphics are set to captivate readers once again with the long-awaited release of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two in April 2024! Following the extraordinary success of the first installment, the eagerly anticipated continuation of the story is an artistic tour de force that will leave fans in awe.
Building upon the unique and spellbinding narrative that riveted readers worldwide, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two delves deeper into the mesmerizing world of Karen Reyes, a tenacious young girl navigating the complexities of her own existence amidst the backdrop of 1960s Chicago. Karen seeks to solve the murder of her beloved and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while an array of interconnected stories of those around her unfolds. Meanwhile, she grieves the death of her mother, comes to terms with her own sexual identity, and suspects her brother Deez of hiding dark secrets. Ferris’s masterful storytelling weaves together themes of love, loss, Queer identity, and the power of imagination, making for a truly unforgettable reading experience.
Fantagraphics is excited to bring My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two to readers worldwide. Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth stated, “I am as thrilled today with the completion of My Favorite Thing is Monsters Book Two as I was in 2015 when I read this uniquely executed and groundbreaking work for the first time. Emil has spent years honing this concluding volume to her exacting standards and those of you who have been excitedly anticipating it will not be disappointed. The full range of Emil’s skills that made the first volume such an aesthetic triumph —the dense, multi-layered story, the dazzling draftsmanship, the seamless combination of text and drawings— is on full display on every page of this book.”
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters Book Two will be available in both print and digital formats at all leading bookstores and online retailers starting April 2024. Fans of the first book, as well as newcomers to the series, are encouraged to pre-order their copies to ensure they do not miss out on this extraordinary reading experience.
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