"My Favorite Thing is Monsters" by Emil Ferris | Cartoonist's Track

I went ahead and made a cartoonist track for this week because I ended up being so captivated by the art style in Ms. Ferris’ book. I’d never seen a graphic novel of this sort being illustrated and formatted this way; Images clearly made on a spiral notebook with what seems to be a regular ballpoint pen. Something that many of us artists begin with at a young age, yet some might leave behind to discover other kinds of mediums. Ferris shows how masterpieces really can be made out of anything. 

Something that was my selling point towards the story is the author’s appreciation towards monsters (hence the title) and her reasonings towards such sympathy. I must say I am also a H U G E monster fanatic. Ever since I was little, around six or seven. I never understood that obsession, but as Ferris puts it, sometimes you can relate to them more than to being a regular woman or man. Rather than diminish them for their looks, I found them incredible and unique. I understood their differences because I also had some of my own. That’s why the moment I read this title and saw that the main protagonist was a lesbian Werewolf I was HERE FOR IT. 

I went ahead and emulated the look of this certain page in the book, in which the character “Sandy” is being introduced. I found it to be a fun and quirky way to introduce her. With the writing describing her being written on the sides. This page in particular gives me the illusion of a person in school having actually drawn this when bored in class, not really wanting to focus so instead they wanted to draw a familiar face. 

For my piece, I just wanted to be open with myself, the way that Ferris has kindly done in her book, and give a little bit of reasoning to why I relate to being a monster. I drew this in my Moleskine notebook using a micropen for the narration and yes! a ballpoint pen for the illustration, because I could not leave that important detail behind. Now, I could never emulate Ferri’s incredible hatching techniques but I tried my best!