Her Favorite Thing Is Monsters!

By every standard Emil Ferris is a great artist. Her work is moving, provocative, masterful, entertaining, and just fantastically original and down-right good. Now; on to the Monsters. Like the majority of Emil’s fans it was her breakout graphic novel “My favorite Thing is Monsters” that first got my attention. The title alone was a grabber for me. I have personally always loved monsters too; yes, a true love. Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, the Phantom of The Opera; those familiar guys and many other classics dominates my bed room like those of, I imagine, a lot of kids from my generation. They were there as small plastic sculpture/models that I painstakingly assembled like a mad scientist. There were magazines and comic books too. Whenever “The Wolf Man,” “The Thing” or “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” aired I was in front of our television, regardless of time of day. I remember my beloved Grandmother saying; “You like all that weird stuff.” My response was: “Well, Yea…I do.”  It didn’t seem weird to me. In fact it made perfect sense. I associated them with religion, mythology, psychology and society as great works of literature and art. I’m sure Emil Ferris would agree. 

 

The Ferris debut work (MFTIM) is as mentioned before as masterful as it is beautiful and an inspiration. Her opening debut to the world stage is every bit as fantastic as her subject matter. She keeps it equally personal and intimate in turn. She explores her awakening sexuality, cultural norms and coming of age. It is a love letter to the discovery of truth and beauty through the study and observation of art.  She does all this while wrapping her narrative in a murder mystery. This is surly enough to satisfy the most demanding of audiences. She skillfully ties it all together while presenting it in great style that is most assuredly her own and uniquely so. 

Ferris chooses to execute her illustrations on compositional notebook paper which gives the work a personal touch. Every aspiring artist and young person begins drawing with lined paper I’m sure. This is a connection to her own past as well as the masses she is reaching with her efforts. What she is putting down is far indeed from any kiddie stuff. 

Ferris often faithfully recreates works of the great academics such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Winslow Homer. She does an incredible take on Henry Fuseceli’s “The Nightmare” that is truly to marvel.  Her work; rightfully so, has been feature in the most prominent art magazine of the day “Art Forum” a welcome validation and honoring of her achievements and uncanny abilities.

Think of “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters” when you think of “Maus,” “Persepolis,” “Sin City,” “The Arrival,” “God’s Man” or Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman.” It is comfortable among the best of the genre and like the other fore mentioned also rates among other works of “High Art.” Ferris fits nicely on the book shelf with Wells, Shelly, Bradbury and Hugo. 

                                                                                                                          

She presents herself with an elegance of presence and off beat flair; a character unto herself. I will not be surprised to see her cast one future day by Guillermo del Toro for one of his screen plays. What an asset she would be to any production. 

No problem, no fear.

Bill Sienkiewicz "REVOLUTION"

 The arrival of Bill Sienkiewicz’s “Revolution” has been cause for much personal celebration and many declarations. I am a committed and constant follower and admirer of his art. I remember him from his early “Neal Adams Clone Days” and still seeing something of a potential and particular originality in what he was doing. Many comic book artists of the period were doing Adams; he was the standard of the times, so Sienkiewicz was hardly alone in following the Adams example.  At the outset Bill Sienkiewicz had the distinction of being the best of the Adams’ influenced. Even in that he stood out. He captured the broad strokes and the nuances along with the imagination and innovation that made Neal Adams famous. Bill Sienkiewicz would ultimately come into his on with a vengeance when; as he describes in “Revolution” stops attempting to emulate someone else and becomes himself. He always wanted to experiment, explore and in his own way influence the world. He has done that in many ways and in the process influenced many others as he entertains and inspires while daring to express himself in what many considered a limited medium.

                                                                                     

I more or less initially looked at this treasure of a book in two extended sessions. The opening ten pages spoke more than many enclypedic collections of other art and artists. Then I followed with the reading of the heart felt, precisely intriguing, witty and decisively cunning introduction by Neil Gaiman. The two; Gaiman and Sienkiewicz have collaborated successfully together in the past. They are equally noted for their experimental risks, daring natures and contributions as talents. That in turn was enough for me to absorb on one late evening after my copy arrived.

Returning to and then reading the informative and insightful Ben Davis essay and the compelling interview by Churl R. Kim I felt even more enamored of what could be described as the modest and uniquely American Mystique of Sienkiewicz’s persona.  Both essay and interview were further illuminated with yet more beautifully executed fine art influenced illustrations. I was in something of an intellectual and artistic bliss.

Finally I decided to take in the nearly one hundred fifty color and black & white plates of the expressive works; water-colors, acrylic, collage, mixed-medium and pen & ink works of pure genius. Here; I took a cue from Neil Gaiman. He detailed in the introduction that when working with Sienkiewicz he had taken the drawings sent to him for a Sandman story and played with them. Gaiman deviated from the sequence of his original narrative and essentially reversed and mixed the story sequence images and events. This established the need for an almost complete re-write for the material Gaiman had previously plotted. This option took him into uncharted and magnificent new places in his own uniquely personal imaginative spaces.   

I decided on following Gaiman’s lead in viewing  the remainder of the book starting from the last plate and reviewing them in reverse.  The material consisted of Jimi Hendrix, The New Mutants, Stray Toasters, Dare Devil and Elektra; along with pages from his sketch book and fine art renderings all generously offered. This came together into something thrilling, challenging, provocative and entertaining. I found myself touched and as well moved. Ultimately there was a sense of certainty and complexity; in the best way, a personal restoration of significant satisfaction. 

Bill Sienkiewicz Quotes

“I made a decision to love and respect comics as a medium. I believed it was a medium that could do anything.”

“I pursue the emotional truth of something as opposed to simply the visual truth.”

“We are all an evolving combination of all the things we experience. We are an end result of our influences, subconscious or otherwise.”

“If my work influences or touches other people scares them, makes them uncomfortable or brings them joy, it’s a method of communication.”

“At one point everything is brand new, but with time the new wave becomes the old guard.”

“Art is an ongoing and never ending process…you’re not done. You’re never done.”

The Art & Narrative of Elektra Assassin Sienkiewicz & Miller

Imagine it’s something like this; a politically visionary, mysteriously engaging action adventure that is satirically humorous while disguising itself as a romantic spy thriller. This refreshingly funny take on contemporary world events is peppered with, while including demonic possession, psycho- babble and even robotics. Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz gave this jewel of a novel to the world in the nineteen eighties. It was originally released in monthly installments   by Marvel Comics and sold in specialty shops. That was the way I initially read this graphic novel. It was brilliantly conceived and constructed at the time. It not only holds up in our contemporary political climate (the age of Trump) it soars and is on many levels definitive in tone along with being surprisingly prophetic.

Elektra was a character Frank Miller created as foil to Matt Murdock’s Dare Devil. Elektra was an extrodinarally gifted while flawed character. She was an immediate fan favorite and she was killed almost as quickly as she was introduced. Elektra was too good to remain in oblivion and the novel “Elektra Assassin” was a wonderful way to revisit the character while adding to the mythology in this work that is a prequel to the original Miller thriller. 

 THE SOVIET PREMIER HAS BEEN SIGHTED AT THE WEST WING...VOTED FOR THAT SON OF A BITCH...LIED TO US...CANT BELIEVE HE'D LET THIS HAPPEN...

I most recently reread “Elektra Assassin” in a compilation edition and it was exceptionally good. In ways even better than I remembered from my eighties encounter with the book.   At this point I couldn’t recommend it any higher. “Elektra  Assassin” is literature at it most heightened. The creators are in-league with Ian Fleming, Dashiell Hammett and Stieg Larsson. They are masters of their chosen form. Miller’s words and Sienkiewicz’s pictures make for an illuminating and grand experience. In another way of phrasing; they are ranking among the very best! 

Miller and Sienkiewicz followed up their achievement; “Electra Assassin” with another tale from the Dare Devil Mythos; “Love & War” which is centered on the chance that the heartless “King Pin” (Wilson Fisk) might actually be capable of loving something outside of his own narcissistic self-love. Could this, again be a prophetic treatise on the inner life of a ruthless businessman politician, someone at the present time, some unnamed public figure?”  But within the mean time take a look at “Electra Assassin.” It just might become a thing treasured in your own right, as you may as yet find to peruse and imagine.

    

"I don't need evidence," said the President. "I'm the President. I know what I'm talking about," he said. "I got elected didn't I?"

A local man claims to have seen the woman strike down two police officers with her bare hands, before being subdued. Local authorities refuse to draw any connection between this incident and the recent assassination which took pace in San Concepcion.

Frank Miller: 300, Sin City & Moore

Frank Miller was writing and penciling Daredevil when I started reading him. It was a cross-over issue featuring the appearance of The Incredible Hulk. I had heard a lot of good things about this Miller guy and the appearance of the Hulk would guarantee a higher price later on the collector’s market if the book was actually a dud.

Miller was rumored and heralded to be a writer of a rare skill and talent. It was said his writing was gritty, dark and misanthropic. Miller’s perception of society was one of disheveled anarchy. He was constantly opening doors previously unknown; taking the risky dark alley to get to that undiscovered yet coveted pay off. He was an original but he loved and respected the medium as he expanded the mythology. He was neither a deconstructionist nor post-modernist. Miller; as it turned out was indeed the “Real Deal.” The rumors were darkly; gloriously true.

Frank Miller is responsible for expanding the world of the super hero and that of the graphic novel as well. Great pieces including hits and classics that remain current: The Dark Knight Returns, Electra Assassin, Daredevil: Love and Money, Ronin, Sin City and 300 are part of the Miller canon.  Miller has changed along with a few other extraordinary talents; including and especially writers Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman  evolved the comic book into it’s contemporary form while expanded the readership beyond all previous boundaries. Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and Alan Moore’s Watch Men were mini-series released within the same year and were powerful and intricate enough to become best sellers and are currently required reading in literature classes.  Neil Gaiman’s  Sandman released a few years later would be equally transformative.    

The Dark Knight Returns tells the story of a dystopian future in which a retired and embittered Batman returns to battle evil. 

The future dark world the Batman re-enters has grown increasingly violent and devoid of humanity as Batman has grown older, physically weaker and aggressively slower. This sadder, older hero with his skills much in decline possesses a deeper sense of revenge and purpose along with an enhanced arsenal of Bat-Tools. Miller takes many risks with his writing as he questions a world that would accept a costumed vigilante, governmental miss-use of powers and the psychology of mad men both good and evil.

300 is another of Miller’s best known pieces. Well written and concise it is best known for the film adaptation by director Zack Snyder that Miller producer himself.

Miller was inspired to create his 300 from an earlier film 300 Spartans released in the nineteen sixties. The graphic novel is most memorable for the illustrations created by Miller with his then wife Lynn Varley doing a remarkable water-color embellishment. The over-size hard-cover version is a lush pleasure to be studied, relished and absorbed. Democracy, nationalism and the notion of personal sacrifice for the greater good prevail in this work. 

Sin City

Sin City is a series of seven books that Miller wrote and illustrated. The drawings are almost exclusively black and white which add to the drama and starkness of the works.  It exists in a strangely isolated purely imagined city inhabited exclusively by thugs, cops, hookers, serial killers, corrupt authorities and assorted losers. It is probably the darkest of Miller’s works, his most ambitious, original and successful. Miller was definitely influenced by film noir and the pulps but it is film noir on some kind of hyper-drug. Sin City is Frank Miller!

The  Sin City series is another example of  Miller’s work translated to film. Movie makers including Alfred Hitchcock and Ridley Scott have long used story boards as preliminary studies and aids for their photographic telling of stories and as a plotting device. When Robert Rodriguez decided to film Sin City he shot directly from the books images and dialogue. Why do new story boards the books already existed as such? Rodriguez using few re-writes successfully and faithfully recreated Millers graphic masterpiece into a seminal work. The film was extraordinarily faithful to the original piece; a thing to awe. Miller was along as co-director and even appeared in a cameo.

Frank Miller

The sequel to Sin City is scheduled for released in a few months and it looks to be very good. Miller continues to create as he continues to expand his reputation, to entertain and to thrill!