As we’ve seen, we are embarking on a narrative seemingly told as it occurs by young Karen herself, so it’s as if we were reading her actual physical diary, or at least her daily scribblings on “the case.” Due to this very heterogeneous, deceptively simple, relatable and approachable, everyday materiality, one is reminded of Lynda Barry’s ongoing effort in inviting people into the world of comics, regardless of more consolidated integration on more classical genres, styles or “schools”.
This materiality has a forceful impact on the fabric of the narrative. Allied to what seems to be ballpoint pen lines, mostly in black, but sometimes using bold colours such as red, yellow, green, blue and others, in beautiful, intricate hatchwork that takes fully advantage of subtractive colouring at significant and powerful moments, Ferri’s artistic signature in this book is, at one time, deceptively simple – everyday materials – and masterful – a painstakingly morose process, with momentous results.
Whatever degree of distance or proximity there is between Ferris herself and little Karen, what is important is the authenticity with which the text presents itself, as an urgency of telling the things it tells.Īll the drawings are made on perforated, blue-ruled white legal paper. It is quite probable that there are several traits that are coincidental to those of the empirical author, but that is not important for the reading of the book. The book is purportedly told in such a way that it seems to be an autobiography in comics form written and drawn by a young girl named Karen Reyes. To a certain extent, the overnight sensation first volume of My Favourite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris is a hefty novel about this interconnectedness, through the protagonist’s attempt in overcoming such indifference. To be indifferent towards someone or someone is not indifferent to our own constitution as human beings and citizens. Through family ties, friendships, work relations, neighbourhood life, nationality, identity communities, we relate to everyone around us, whether we feel attracted or repulsed, or even if it’s simple indifference. As social beings, our lives are imbricated forcibly with one another.
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