My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 (My Favorite Thin… (2025)

Dave Schaafsma

Author6 books31.9k followers

June 7, 2024

6/7/24: So I have now read the entire text of My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Volume 2. I read half of it via New Galley a couple months ago, and bought this at a book publication event at the Harold Washington Library, the main “branch,” more like the trunk, of the Chicago Public Library.

So I’ll probably revise this quick first draft more than once, but I’ll say again that My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris is a masterpiece in comics history. But the blurbs are a potential set-up! Art Spiegelman says, “Emil Ferris is one of the most important comics artists of our time.” Alison Bechdel calls it a “spectacular, eye-popping magnum opus.” Chris Ware says it is “absolutely astonishing.” I pick these three because they are arguably among the top five comics artists working today, the very icons of the craft. And who am I to disagree?

At a glance it appears I hit on the focus of the second volume in my earlier review of the first half of it. But let me just add that it answers the question of who killed Anka, who kills Victor, the brother of Deeze. We learn more and more about Deeze’s shadowy, angry path and his criminal history. And we can't ethically support him, but Karen nevertheless is connected for life to him as her older brother. We also get to experience the first coming-of-age, coming out story of Karen and Shelley.

The whole epic sprawling work will not be for everyone, just as Dickens, Dostoevsky, or Melville’s Moby Dick will be for everyone. Sprawling, almost formless, it’s about the whole world from the Holocaust to the civil rights era Chicago. It’s a broad canvass of the history of horrific violence because we can’t accept differences among us, and it's also a narrow one, focusing on Karen’s mystery explorations of herself, love, and Deeze. It’s actually a whodunnit, a murder mystery, pertaining to two central mysteries.

It’s about art, including major paintings about violence at the Chicago Art Institute, the foundation of this work, and a kid becoming an artist. It’s a story told as if by a young girl, in her diary, on legal pads, what an economically disadvantaged girl in Uptown might be able to afford. It’s about poverty. Social and economic inequities. And it’s about monsters, real and imagined.

PS: So I want to the June 5 event at Harold Washington Library, moderated by her friend Kurt DeVine. Here it is, via You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQKDN...

But here are a couple things I jotted down in my little notebook:

DeVine says he saw more than 600 pages of the work and thought this has to be made public, but then, how to do it, to give shape to it? And again, when it was about 1,200 pages: How do you do this?! So it had to be ordered, focused to some extent, where multiple threads come together. But like the above epics, it has everything in it, still, as it should.

The birth of Karen: “It was Uptown; it was 1967. I was at a birthday party, and the girls were talking about babydolls and the boys were getting breadsticks to bring to the girls (breadwinners!), and I am disabled and multi-ethnic, and someone asks me what are you? And I say I’m a detective, and there’s been a murder.” And thus, the book that emerged from that moment is an on-going investigation of many things. So this is when Karen was born. The theme of the night is the detective.” Kurt: The what? EF: The detective!

But the evening is really more about art, and Ferris encouraging each of us to do our dream, do the thing we need to do, and though this book deals with hard realities, it is also this from (the murdered) Anka: “It's been my experience that people will surprise you. As often as people will do terrible things, they also do small acts of kindness. I believe that spirits of evil and good whisper to us at all times.”

How to toil in obscurity doing your art? “Artists give their gifts to the world, but the world isn’t always ready to respect the gifts they’ve been given.” But keep on doing it!

Read it!

PS: I left everything below intact as it is somehow important to the process of the creation of both volumes. It took a long time and a lot of work, obviously.

4/28/24: I know this sounds like a mean joke but the new release date is May 28 (2024!) (of the whole second book to the finish!).

4/21/24: Thanks to NetGalley, Fantagraphics and Emil Ferris for this early look at the first two hundred pages of My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Volume 2. I should probably say that Emil drew the cover on one of my co-edited books, has a piece in it, and has been a friend of mine for several years, so consider the source, though I wrote my initial rave review of (the masterpiece) volume 1 before I had known her.

This is Ferris’s life work, clearly, a sprawling epic set in Uptown Chicago in the tumultuous Civil Rights era of the late sixties and puts that in the context of Nazi Germany. The story is narrated (and made to seem as if drawn on legal pads) by a ten-year-old girl, Karen, mixed race, bullied by her peers, coming into her (queer) sexual identity and her life as an artist. Karen’s favorite thing is monsters, as in monster comics, though she sees herself too as her very favorite monster, a werewolf, which for her is a good thing. Mama was a central figure in the first volume, now gone, but Deeze, her artist brother remains. One central concern: Who are the real (negative) “monsters” in the world if not racist, anti-semitic, homophobic humans? And a related concern: Where does our hatred of each other come from, our anger, our violence against each other?

One important aspect of the tale is the importance of art, as the two siblings go regularly to the Chicago Art Institute to get in touch with this important way of seeing the world as a way to understand it and celebrate it. Another central concern in the book is the murder of Holocaust survivor Anka. In addition to seeing herself as a werewolf, Karen also from time to time dresses as a detective to investigate this mystery and hopefully solve it. The question at the end of the last volume is what role Deeze may have had in the crime, if any. Cliffhanger.

The first two hundred pages of volume two maybe slows down the pace of the narrative, continuing and deepening some of the volume one themes. We learn something about a possible Deeze twin, now gone? Named Victor. Did Deeze kill Anka? Did he kill Victor? Karen opens the volume with a dream that he did. And in that dream we meet Anka talking to Karen, too.

We go to the Art Institute and take our time there in volume 2. Karen makes a friend, Shelley, and with her listens to audiotapes that Anka made about her past in Nazi Germany, so we go more into these horrors, including Auschwitz, the belly of the (monstrous) beast. So much of what Karen and Deeze value in the art they see at the Art Institute is the struggle between beauty and harsh truths, and Karen’s dreams reflect those struggles, too. At the Art Institute we have Deeze talk about, among other things, Toulouse-Lautrec and his paintings of gay lovers, dancers, prostitutes (depicted by Karen positively--for her--as vampires), honoring them as Deeze tries to do (he does help them, befriend them, and it’s also clear he has sex with some of them, too). We focus on Carvaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, and we look at Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks as a way of getting at a range of questions about what it means to be human.

What else? We get to know better Jeffery “The Brain” Alvarez, Danny Ditchwater, and a whole Dickensian (that’s it! This is like Dickens! That’s the key!) cast of oddballs and late sixties “freaks” (meant in a good way by me and Karen). Karen does “stealth drawing” of Chicagoans on the train (as Emil Ferris does!), collecting portraits, deepening our sense of her as a burgeoning artist, deepening our sense of appreciation for the wonders of human variation. We see that Deeze is publishing comics, too! We see lots of full page horror comics cover art and scenes of (gothic) Chicago art and architecture.

We don’t ignore literature in the investigation of the human and violence: Myths of Oedipus, Hades and Cerberus, Hercules.

The scope of this is vast and maximalist, epic, operatic, and yet intimate if we realize that it is through the eyes of the young Karen that we are navigating this huge city and the history of racism and violence while committed to art as a sense-making tool. I can’t wait to read more. And no, I have no idea how long it will be til wee see the completed manuscript, but I was glad to see even part of it!

4/6/24: I got a preview copy of the first two hundred pages of this, volume two, and it is great. I'll try to read it as fast as I can, but this likely will not happen as it is again dense and rich and needing to savor.

2/10/24: The most recent New Yorker has an excerpt from volume two and it looks great! Late spring or specifically April 9, 2024 is when we can expect the whole thing, now that the disputes that have kept this from publication seem to be resolved. Can't wait!

She's (sadly) joking when she says on her site:

Expected publication December 31, 2050

But the new, official publication date is April 9, 2024, by Fantagraphics Press!

Here's a press release from the press:

https://blog.fantagraphics.com/fantag...

    best-graphic-lit-ever books-loved-2024 friend-books

Off My Shelves - Chris

18 reviews16 followers

August 5, 2024

It will come as no surprise that when I tell you that the art in this book, and its predecessor, is breathtaking. While it is reminiscent of a few artists, it’s a style all of her own and every page is just a wonderful piece of art. The diversity of page layout, line style, colours, everything adds together to present a visual feast that is up there with the greatest the medium has to offer.

With that said it shares one flaw book one had and has something book one didn’t have, an unsatisfying story.

First, the thing it shares, the lettering. In the first book I would often follow what looked good or seemed like the natural flow of the book which often had me reading the speech or narrated parts in the wrong order. This is even more pronounced in book two, and many times my eyes would be darting round the pages to find the correct text as what I was reading made no sense out of order. Now, the thing with this is the book is supposed to be our main characters note book, so the lettering not being perfect and being jammed in in awkward places or ways could be a conscious choice. Whatever the reason both books suffered a bit from it but book two was way worse and just hampered the reading flow at different points.

Now to the thing it doesn’t share with book one, the unsatisfying story.

The first book presented the world of Karen Reyes, and how she depicted herself and a monster as she seemingly didn’t like her real self. Fascinated with monster movies and comics she is a typical awkward geeky outsider trying to get by in late 1960s Chicago. She struggles with her sexuality, which is a theme danced around for the most part in book one but fully dived into and explored in book two. She lives with her mother who has health issues and her brother who she idolises.

Her neighbour is found murdered and as Karen fancies herself as a detective she begins to try and solve what happened. Anka, her neighbour turns out to have a deep and disturbing past in Nazi Germany, and as Karen searches for her killer she discovers Anka’s backstory involving child abuse, prostitution and the holocaust.

While that mystery is going on Karen’s life story is laid out. Her friends, how she sees the world, her ambitious, her fears, everything is laid bare. There are large sections of the book dedicated to deep introspective talks with her brother while looking at classical art at the museum. The art is replicated throughout both books and the stories from her brother create an imagery world for Karen to get lost in.

There are many characters that jump in and out for different lengths of time but broadly speaking it is Karen’s story. How her family engages with her and how she engages with them. How she navigates the world and tries to understand who she is. With a backdrop of a murder and Jewish persecution.

Book two starts where book one ends. Instantly it slows the pace right down as the end of book one had many revelations and twists. The pace is slowed by just Karen and her brother talking about their beloved art and stuff that has happened so far. This is very long at the start as the pair chat for a while on their way to the galleries and on their return, and it squarely puts the focus on the fact that this is Karen’s story but her story is and will always be linked to her brothers story. A story she knows snippets of because she is purposefully kept away from the gangster, womanising, criminal world Deze, her brother, is a part of.

We get way less of the Anka mystery in book two, which is sort of expected as by the end of book one and through most of book two it is pretty clear who the main suspect is but Karen tries everything to avoid that reality and as it’s her notebook we are reading we get that avoidance.

Book two’s best parts for me were these long deep dives into Karen and Deze and how they love each other but are dishonest on different levels. Their relationship is the heart of both books and their talks about art, life and the choices they make are what make certain parts of book two really stand out.

Karen’s friends and relationships in book two don’t feel as well developed and as interesting as book one and even Franklin as a character feels a little rushed and tacked on to different parts. In book one that character really stood out, here his tragic backstory and new found happiness seem a little out of place when they just pop up. Likewise Karen’s girlfriend doesn’t really make much of an impact, just comes then is left unresolved. And that word, unresolved, is probably the word I’d sum up this book.

When all is over (no book three is planned as yet) you are left knowing nothing for certain. Add to that right at the very end Karen’s story totally changes course and as she remembers nothing of the event that led to this huge change we get no clarity either; her notebook, her memories. No clarity on Anka’s story and how it ends - though as I said, her murderer is implied heavily, and the reason she ends up in that particular place living after the war is also implied with some revelations from the basement. No clarity on what has or will happen with Karen or Deze. Friendships are seemingly abandoned. It was all a very strange ending that left me very perplexed about the story and characters. If there is a book three at some point clarity may come but if there’s not then pay attention as there are some breadcrumbs in both books that will give some answers but overall be prepared to put your thinking cap on to fill in the ambiguities.

Endings are never easy and rarely live up to the journeys that preceded them but even without the very out of place pace and developments in the ending of book two it would still be weaker than book one in my mind. Book one had a great balance between all of the different aspects of Karen’s life and was paced far better than book two; lots more emotional punches in book one also.

I certainly enjoyed reading it and experiencing the astounding art, but it is weaker than the first in terms of story.

karen

4,008 reviews172k followers

Currently reading

May 24, 2024

sorry, Long Live Evil, i gotta put you on hold - i've been waiting far too long to dive into this one...

**************************

september's not so far away

ren

177 reviews4 followers

Want to read

May 27, 2017

Note to self: you have preordered this

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Heather

495 reviews

June 5, 2024

To be completely honest, I'm disappointed. I waited 7 years for this follow up and I'm left with more questions than answers at the end.

I don't know if this is the end of the series, I'm okay with it if it is because I'm not a reader that needs a sequel until we've got a zombie series on our hands. But just WHAT at that ending? If I'm being fair WHAT at a lot of things in this book.

The revelation that their dad lived a stone's throw away from them this whole time, but was also a cop? But was also a cop that put a hit on both Deeze and Karen? And would've sold Karen into trafficking? But Deeze working for [guy] is what's saving both their necks?

How about Deeze's twin that's also kinda hand waved? Deeze killed him one night when he got upset that their father gave Victor a toy gun, so Deeze got their father's real gun and shot the kid, and there was just no investigation or anything? I guess we could say that their dad hushed it up, but what? Victor was their dad's favorite kid, allegedly?

Shelley might as well have not even been there. I'm glad Karen got to have a friend then girlfriend and see herself in the people around her, but Shelley has no real impact on the plot.

Chugg's being a creeper with Anka was a weird thing to throw into the latter section of the book and it goes nowhere and doesn't explain what happened to him at all, just he was obsessed and kept a diary about her.

Which brings me to my final point: What the FUCK were those last few pages? The drunk that was pissing on the window outside the diner Karen and Deeze went to one time winds up being their father, Frank Reyes, who lives only in the next part of town. He harasses some prostitutes, Karen overhears them calling him by his full name, and follows him home. Then she goes home, gets Deeze's gun that she didn't technically know was in the house and wakes up covered in blood in an alley with a gash on her head and needs to be hidden from the police. And NOBODY, not even Karen, knows what she did.

And then the book ends with Karen and Deeze leaving to start over somewhere else.

I'm thoroughly disappointed. Maybe I'll revisit both volumes in the future to try to make sense of what I read and the story, but for now I'm just confused as hell.

Juan Naranjo

Author14 books3,866 followers

Read

April 30, 2024

Como lector, es poco habitual tener la certeza de que estás asistiendo, en directo, al nacimiento de un clásico instantáneo indiscutible del cómic actual, pero esa es justo la sensación que se tiene en cuanto se abre la puerta del universo de Emil Ferris. Y es que pocas veces se puede observar una voz tan única, un lenguaje tan identificable como propio, un plantel de personajes tan icónicos, un retrato tan pormenorizado de una ciudad, una época, una clase social...

Aun así, yo tenía bastante miedo: es fácil que la continuación de un cómic tan aclamado acabe resultando decepcionante. Sin embargo, el segundo volumen de LO QUE MÁS ME GUSTA SON LOS MONSTRUOS no solo mantiene el nivel (el nivelazo) sino que, incluso, consigue subirlo.

Y es que ya no somos unos invitados al mundo de Karen Reyes, ahora somos parte de él. La niña-hombre lobo-detective es ya parte de nuestra psique y su ciudad, su familia y sus obsesiones son ahora también nuestras.

Este segundo volumen continúa la historia justo donde terminó la otra. Nuestra pequeña heroína peluda tiene que enfrentarse a una nueva vida en la que todo se tambalea y en la que ya no le quedan certezas. Pero Karen es un personaje movido por la curiosidad y por el amor, y esos dos sentimientos son los que hacen que el público lector atraviese las páginas de este cómic con una delectación inaudita.

Emil Ferris consigue que cada página de su cómic de 420 páginas sea, de forma independiente, una obra de arte... y, en conjunto, una obra revolucionaria. En este volumen se condensan la historia del arte, la historia del nacimiento de los derechos civiles, la historia de las clases populares, de la emigración y de la supervivencia en los márgenes. La trama literaria es tan compleja como la intrincada trama de los bolígrafos que crean un universo propio en el que, a la vez, quieres vivir y sacar de él a esos personajes que parecen tocados por la mala suerte y a los que solo la esperanza los mantiene a flote.

Karen ya no es una niña inocente, ahora es una persona de camino a la adolescencia que reclama lo que es suyo, que se enfrenta a lo que le da miedo, que deja atrás los tabúes que la constreñían... y su liberación, de alguna forma, también es la nuestra.

Larga vida a Karen Reyes.
Larga vida a Emil Ferris.

Jeff Jackson

Author4 books518 followers

Read

July 3, 2024

A conflicted reaction that a star rating can't capture. The artwork throughout is astonishing - many sequences manage to outdo the first volume's eye-popping marvels. Ferris's drafting skills and imaginative arrangements are exceptional. There are some rougher pages, but they make sense with the story's sketchbook format and offer a nice contrast.

It's also a pleasure to be back in the world of Karen Reyes and her brother Deeze, returning to the Art Institute, and introduced to memorable new characters like The Brain and Shelley. The mysteries from Book #1 (plus a few new ones) drive the first two-thirds of the book as Karen struggles with a set of increasingly complex moral questions.

It's in the final third that the story utterly unravels. There are only rushed, half-hearted, and ham-fisted gestures toward a resolution. It probably needed at another 50-100 pages to wrap up the story with an emotional resonance worthy of the project. There's a push to declare this a masterpiece, but narratively (*not* art-wise) it falls very short.

A vague set of spoilers follows --

While I wish the story had lived up to its tremendous promise, the best parts of "Monsters" -- compelling characters, pungent Chicago setting, charismatic narration, and especially the artwork -- still offer more than enough to be worth the journey.

    graphic-novels

Robin Bonne

652 reviews157 followers

June 4, 2024

It arrived and I loved it!

Old:
I preordered this from Amazon quite awhile ago and the Amazon listing updated to say it will be published in September 2021. I’m getting scared I’ll never get to read the ending.

Edit: Amazon cancelled my preorder! Anybody know the status of this release?

Edit (six years later): New preorder for April 2024!

Maricruz

474 reviews72 followers

July 9, 2024

Se habrá dicho ya varias veces, pero habría que decirlo muchas más: el término «obra maestra» debió de inventarse para cosas como Lo que más me gusta son los monstruos. Ojalá poder quedarse siempre junto a Karen Reyes. Terminar este cómic me ha producido una melancolía que hacía mucho tiempo que no sentía al acabar un libro. Aunque solo sea por eso, por acabarlo.

    cómic

Kim Lockhart

1,214 reviews176 followers

June 23, 2024

The second volume is a bottomless reservoir of profound reflection. I've not read anything this good that is also seamlessly one with incredible artistry.

This is a triumph.

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CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian

1,276 reviews1,783 followers

January 13, 2025

I've been waiting for the much-anticipated sequel to My Favorite Thing is Monsters Vol 1 for years and it did not disappoint!

This visually and narratively stunning work continues the story of Karen Reyes, baby dyke in 1960s Chicago trying to solve the murder of Anya, her upstairs neighbor and Holocaust survivor. In this volume she also continues her friendship with another queer kid, Francoise, from school; meets her first girlfriend at the museum (while this girl is stealing the money from the pay toilets in the bathroom); and finds out a lot about her brother Deeze and who her dad is.

With intricate art done solely in ballpoint pen (!!!), Ferris dismantles the false division between high and low art, as she — through Karen whose journal comprises the vehicle for the story — renders with equal dedication the fine art on the walls of the galleries Karen visits and the B-movie horror magazine covers she adores.

Queerness as monstrosity and the reclaiming of that are central conceits, but Ferris’s interrogation of grief, memory, sibling relationships, and sex work are just as nuanced and compelling. There's some dark stuff in here, but it's ultimately hopeful, in its own complex way.

    american fiction graphic-comics

Summer (speaking_bookish)

824 reviews41 followers

Want to read

July 21, 2023

UPDATE: And we have an official date, my friends!!! April 9, 2024 published by Fantagraphics!

I feel like I’ve been waiting a literal LIFETIME for this book. It was originally set to release in 2021 I believe or even 2020 but it keeps getting pushed back. I cannot even imagine the amount of work the artistic genius writing this book must have to put into it, but, like, I need it… PLEASE.

    adult cover-love diverse

Renee

344 reviews2 followers

May 30, 2024

3.5 stars rounded up.

I can't say this was a bad book. Emil Ferris is one of the most gifted graphic novel artists. My Favorite Thing is Monsters changed the way I think about what comics can be. The art and storytelling in this are excellent, but on the whole the story was lacking.

They say you can't rush genius, and I suspect that that was the problem here. This book has been due for a number of years and my impression is that publishers were vying to get this published, and the story suffered for it. Being volume 2, Emil Ferris had to take up a lot of space at the beginning of the book reminding readers what happened in the first volume, which was disappointing to me (fresh off vol. 1), as it took time that could have been used for further development. There's some threads that were wrapped up from the first book, but many more that were never finished. For example, we never heard the rest of Anka's story, it abruptly ends when Karen can no longer listen to the taped recording. Some characters who were introduced throughout the two volumes disappear and it makes their introduction frustrating as their story is unresolved.

There's several instances in the book where Kare stops herself mid story and says "That's a story for another time" which makes me wonder if Ferris is planning to write a supplementary text of other themes and ideas that she wanted to include in this volume and wasn't able to. I'd of course read it, but I wish that there had been more time for this story to be carried out and completed within the volume.

Stephen Hines

Author14 books12 followers

June 11, 2024

Book one was a flawless masterpiece but this book could have been so much better if the author/artist would have had a better editor. As with book one, the art is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Still, there are page transitions that seem like panels are missing, the flow of dialogue across two page splash panels doesn’t make sense, some information is repeated unnecessarily and, despite the book being so thick, there was a lot of filler and a rushed ending.

Becky Spratford

Author4 books669 followers

January 1, 2025

This book has been my carrot to finish my work for the year. I will be enjoying it over the holidays and I CANNOT WAIT.

Kristin

1,624 reviews21 followers

June 16, 2024

Not as a good as book one. The art was amazing, but the story was incredibly disjointed. Sometimes I’d turn the page, and I thought pages were missing, because plot threads just disappeared. I completely forgot about Victor, and I’m not sure if the story Deeze told Karen is even true. Karen herself was an unreliable narrator, and we never fully solve the mystery of Anka’s murder. Wrong place, wrong time? Sounds like the entire apartment building was caught up in the mob. But we’ll never know. Publishing data states this is the conclusion, but so much was left unanswered.

    graphic-novels series

Floflyy

319 reviews153 followers

January 5, 2025

J'ai autant aimé ce second tome, si ce n'est plus, alors que je lui reconnais un défaut que je n'avais pas ressenti dans le premier. Pourtant, les émotions qui m'ont parcourues à la lecture ont été plus fortes dans ce tome ci.

Notre personnage principal a vécu un drame et doit faire avec, grandir. Et c'est avec émotion que l'on assiste à cet éveil chez elle : l'amour, l'amitié, les sentiments. Petit à petit elle ouvre les yeux sur le monde imaginaire qu'elle s'est créé, elle abat les barrières et nous permet de découvrir en même temps qu'elle la réalité très sombre de son quotidien.

Dans un Chicago toujours gangréné par la mafia, l'histoire évolue un peu plus dans ce tome et nous permet d'en apercevoir d'avantage.

Le seul défaut que je lui trouve, c'est que par moment le rythme est décousu, surtout dans la première partie, ce qui s'explique par le fait que l'autrice a du redessiner et écrire les planches du début car je crois qu'elle les a perdues.

Bill

470 reviews5 followers

June 27, 2024

I have to give this a 5 for the artwork, the characters, the fictional recreation of late 60's Chicago, the many issues it examines, and the fact that it represents 7 years of imaginative work but it is not as good as the first book.

I'm not going to detail them here (read reviews of Book One) but everything that made the first book great is in Book Two also, including, significantly, the wonders and the horrors human beings are capable of as portrayed in a personal story of survival in Nazi Germany and in the narrator Karen's growing awareness of her brother's angelic/demonic character and actions. Nevertheless, despite Book Two's greatness, it has some shortcomings.

I reread Book One the minute I got this one in my hands; it took only a day and a half. This one bogged down for me about halfway through, partly due, I must admit, to distracting needs in my own world, but the storyline seemed to meander and became less compelling.

I just finished the last half of the book in a day and the pace and interest picked up but the ending felt rushed. I can live with the references of "more to come later" that never came, and I can live with a less than conclusive resolution to the story's main mysteries, but if there isn't another book I do feel a little cheated. Besides those lingering questions, some seemingly key characters are just dropped and forgotten.

The covers of horror comics that served as "chapter breaks" throughout now occur near the end more frequently and closer together but seemed more like filler as there were no "breaks" in the narrative story. In other places, jarring jumps in time and place occur that would seem to be new chapters and caused me to check that I hadn't skipped a page. And some crucial action takes place off stage leaving us unsure about what really happened.

* What follows is a bit of a spoiler for anyone who reads on -- and for me as a reader of the book.

But most disappointing was the lack of a resolution to the theme I believed was most central to the story: Karen coming to terms with her real self, recognizing and accepting her human form. I remember a hint of that (maybe from Book One) when brother Deeze forces her to look in a mirror. There is a moment in this book when she rubs the steamy fog from the mirror and we see tearful eyes. And the final "chapter break" is a horror comic cover depicting a werewolf horrified to see his wolf hand turning human. Karen never gets to this. Shelley and Franklin/Francoise were key characters in helping Karen see/accept herself but as I mentioned above, they are just dropped without mention at the end.

As always, a second reading will reveal some things I missed but these are my thoughts now.

Andrew

41 reviews

June 3, 2024

It pains me to say, but this book was underwhelming.

Ever since I read book one back in 2019, I have held the firm belief that My Favorite Thing is Monsters is one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. It was so great that I didn't even realize that it was an incomplete story. It was just that perfect. So when I heard the sequel was coming out, I was over the moon! I could not wait to jump back into the beautiful one of a Kind world that Emil Ferris had crafted.

However, after finally finishing book two, I regretfully have to say that this series would have been fine without a sequel. This book isn't bad, by any means, hence the three stars, and the art is unmatched. Yet, I had this feeling during my entire read through that what I was reading wasn't necessary. Book one already did everything that this story was trying to accomplish. In simple terms, it was derivative.

I still recommend that if you are a fan of the first book to read this one, you aren't missing much if you decide to skip it.

Megan Kirby

440 reviews26 followers

May 22, 2024

At long last! I really gave up hope that this book would ever come out, and now it's here, tidy on my bookshelf! Really stunning conclusion to Ferris's masterwork series. The ballpoint-and-notebook pages switch between nebulous cartoons to ultra-detailed illustrations (special shout-out to the monster of the week comic covers). I've rarely felt as protective over a character as I do about Karen. All of the characters in Ferris's universe feel real, even if they're only minor players. Many complicated plotlines intertwine, and Ferris does a good job not overexplaining. Threads aren't tidily tied up, but I still felt satisfied.

Plus, I live on Chicago's North side, so seeing my neighborhoods in the book is an extra treat. A love letter to Uptown, to queerness, to childhood, to monsters.

The ending is open-ended enough that I think there's room for another book. I'm not holding my breath, but I would obviously love to read more.

Mel

416 reviews84 followers

May 5, 2024

I had ordered this ages ago from Fantagraphics Books and then I kinda forgot about it. It arrived yesterday in the mail and I was super excited that it was finally in my hands. I was so excited that I dropped everything and read it in one day.

It’s really good, the art, ( Emil Ferris sure can draw fantastic) the story, the whole package. I think it was worth the very long wait. It also sort of seemed like there might be another one the way it ended, so not sure about that, but if there is another one then I guess I should get ready to wait another several years for it and it will probably be worth it.

    art-history chicago comics-graphic-novels

Erik

43 reviews

June 16, 2024

I know that Emil Ferris lost her work because of a bad Apple product, and also the publisher pushed her to get it out ASAP after losing her work.

Still. This book was no where near as good as the first one. I can only take "I'll tell you about it later," so many times without satisfaction. That happened, what? 10+ times in this book?

The story was all over the place. The allegories were lofty at best. Franklin as a character was ruined instantly for some reason. The twist was weak and abrupt.

The art was amazing though, as in the first book.

I was hoping for so much more.

Anna Meaney

86 reviews3 followers

June 17, 2024

well it certainly ended!

    2024 genre graphic-novels

Sarah Ellen

282 reviews46 followers

September 2, 2024

Volume 2! So exciting!
You read Volume 1 right? Just checking reviews to see if this one is good too? Yup. It is good. You should keep reading! Was it as genius complex as the first? Well, no, but that first book set the bar REALLY high. This book may not be genius but it is very, very good.
Weird comment but ~ has anyone else made the connection with Karen and Little Critter? Like, when Karen has her hat on and she is in her detective jacket does she not look exactly like Little Critter when he is a detective? Let me know if you noticed the uncanny resemblance as well.
The ending is set up to leave options open for a Volume 3. I hope we get it!

Bibliobutch

119 reviews24 followers

November 24, 2024

Chaque page est un chef d’œuvre.

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Rick Ray

3,113 reviews18 followers

July 12, 2024

The first volume of My Favorite Thing is Monsters was a veritable hit at release, receiving wide-spread acclaim in the comics world and recognition in the form of Ignatz, Eisner and Angoulême awards. Ferris followed up with a Free Comic Book Day issue that went on to win the 2020 Eisner Award for "Best Single Issue/One-Shot" as well. Anticipation for the second volume was at an all-time high, with many (including myself) anticipating the conclusion to a phenomenal debut graphic novel. The long wait tempered my expectations a little, though I can't deny how eager I was to dive into Book Two given how unique Ferris' work was.

Artistically, Ferris is still just as on point. The first volume blew me away with her expert use of ballpoint and felt tip pens for the judicious amount of cross-hatching and hand-lettering. Ferris eschewed the use of traditional panel layouts in favor of a more liberated "sketch book" design, but the sequential nature of the narrative was still potent. Book One was verbose, sure, but Ferris' knack for composition allowed the narrative to flow easily, especially with her unencumbered illustrative style. The second volume is just as great, if not better in this respect. Ferris often deviates artistic styles over the course of the story, dipping between gritty pointillism and a more spare sketchy design. Book One fluctuated between these styles a bit more haphazardly, but Book Two does a better job matching aesthetic to narrative beats.

However, I'll admit the story here was a fair bit more disappointing. My Favorite Thing is Monsters follows the story of ten-year-old Karen Reyes who grapples with her sexuality and self-image by indulging in her love of monster media and horror comics. When her upstairs neighbor Anka Silverberg is found dead, the police rule the death as suicide. Karen believes foul play was involved, and so takes it upon herself to investigate the "murder" all while undergoing a journey of self-discovery. Set in Chicago in the 1960s, My Favorite Thing is Monsters also deals with various other themes relating to the social climate of the period. The city is in constant tumult, with police brutality, the Vietnam War, the Democratic National Convention, civil liberties and more coloring the lives of Karen and her older brother, Deeze. Much of these ideas are filtered through the lens of Karen's naïve worldview (she is just ten, after all), with the first book handling these mature themes with a poignancy. Book One ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, revealing that Deeze may be concealing something nefarious from Karen.

Book Two has several unanswered questions to deal with from the jump. Deeze's story and how he connects to Anka's murder is at the forefront, but Book One also established a lot of Anka's past that also needed answers. But Book Two drops chunks of these narratives out, and very little feels resolved by the conclusion. Sure, one can say that a ten-year-old is an unreliable and probably somewhat erratic of a narrator, but given the crux of the story is centered around various small mysteries, it feels odd structurally to avoid a true climax. And that's what felt missing here - resolution anywhere. I also really felt that Ferris wanted to use Karen's perspective as much more of a soapbox than before. A lot of contemporary political attitudes are presented directly by Karen, who is at the end of the day, a ten-year-old girl. Where Book One manages to filter the complex sociopolitical landscape of '60s Chicago more easily through the eyes of a young, confused girl, Book Two makes Karen seem much more like an author insert than ever before. The lack of subtlety here was disappointing to see given just how subversive and complex Karen's characterization and narration was before.

It's always tough following up on a hit, so I don't want to be too hard here. There's plenty to still love in the second half of My Favorite Thing is Monsters, and Emil Ferris is without doubt a proven cartoonist. If she ever plans on returning to this story for more, I'll eagerly read on, and will be following her along for whatever next project she takes on next.

    best-comics-of-2024 fantagraphics

1,082 reviews

June 19, 2024

3.5 stars rounded up

Book one was a masterpiece and I've waited yeaaaars for book two!
While the illustrations are once again incredible, the story moved much more slowly and the ending was incredibly frustrating because many mysteries weren't truly "solved", just heavily implied. There were many times throughout that Karen says she'll tell/write more in her journal later and readers have no further follow up.
This book felt slow until what I felt to be an abrupt ending. While I wasn't fully satisfied, this book kept my full attention from start to finish because I was so invested in Karen's story!

Jeff

652 reviews53 followers

July 28, 2024

The art. The Art. The ART. Both books! Start to finish!

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 (My Favorite Thin… (28)

But i was too often jarred out of the suspension of disbelief by bizarre omissions and incomprehensible leaps in time and space. Another example re Françoise: when she saves the gang by singing at the speakeasy, there's exactly and only one panel. This triumphant performance deserves more. Or maybe i just wanted more. Something else?

    comics lieberry_books

Molly Shipman

149 reviews1 follower

August 23, 2024

Gorgeous art, a story that was both rushed and meandering.

David

694 reviews183 followers

November 2, 2024

Amazing graphics. Such talent! The accompanying story oscillates between sections that are fascinating, suspenseful, and rich in ideas to others that seem less inspired. Some are oddly tangential to the main storyline and introduce new elements that are never resolved.

5 for the artwork
3.5 for the narrative

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 (My Favorite Thin… (2025)

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