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.
