My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris


Horror in the Graphic Novel

“the word monster comes from the Latin word ‘monstrum’ which means ‘to show’ … there are a lot of things we don’t see everyday that are right under our noses … just maybe–monsters are right under our noses, too.”


In the beginning of the book Ferris draws a distorted yet recognizable version of herself, a werewolf-like monster rather than what she actually looks like. She is drawn like this throughout the story until she expresses her desires of other women and her true identify is show. Throughout this novel we are introduced to a variety of people, some drawn as monsters and others drawn as handsome people. The reader is left trying to piece together the importance of the horrror like symbolism used by Emil Ferris. 


Ferris's use of the expressionism art style is the base of the symbolism. She seeks to to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. The monsters of her story are good people, people she relates or can fit in with, groups of people who have been marginalized, such as immigrants, people of color, women, and the queer community. The handsome people of the story are dangerous or evil, but their monsters are hidden inside. These are the things we don't see, the things people don't show.



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