“We must all accept our monster part”

Such a long absence. It took seven years for American comic book author Emil Ferris to publish the long-awaited second volume of What I like is monsters (Mr. Toussaint Louverture, 416 pages, 34.90 euros). In 2017, the release in the United States of the first volume of the adventures of young Karen Reyes met with dazzling success. Praised by the New York Timesdubbed by Art Spiegelman, the creator of Maus (Flammarion, 1987-1992), the artist received three Eisner prizes for his first publication, the most prestigious awards of the genre across the Atlantic. Same reception in France, where the album has already sold 150,000 copies – a colossal number for his small publishing house – and earned him the Fauve d'or at the Angoulême Festival in 2019.

“I still don’t believe what’s happening to meconfides the artist during an interview with Monde by videoconference, mid-November, from his apartment in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). What touches me even more is the feedback I get from readers, to whom my book speaks. » A horror story, a police investigation, a coming-of-age novel, an epic of emotions, an analysis of the powers of the imagination, the double album is all of this and much more.

The French public, for its part, was calling for the publication of the second part, but also for the 62-year-old American to come to the Utopiales, the international science fiction festival in Nantes of which she was the guest of honor and of which she created the poster, which cheerfully draws on 1970s psychedelia. The cancellation of her trip following health problems of her companion dampened the hopes of her admirers, who will be able to console themselves with the exhibition dedicated to him at the Martel gallery, in Paris, until January 11, 2025.

In every way, Emil Ferris' story is one of hardship and resilience. His childhood in Chicago (Michigan) was marked by significant mobility delays following scoliosis from birth – “I learned to draw before I could walk!” » –, to which is added a sexual assault of which she was the victim. This traumatic episode, which took place while she was watching a cartoon on television, « [l’]has profoundly transformed at the same time as it has lastingly changed [sa] relationship to comics »she testifies.

Intensive reading of horror magazines offers him healthy breaths of fresh air. A major influence found in What I like is monsters. The work is designed as the diary of Karen Reyes, an intrepid 10-year-old werewolf who sets out to investigate the death of her neighbor Anka Silverberg, a Holocaust survivor murdered in murky circumstances. “Most people call me Emil Ferris, but some say my real name is Karen Reyes…” slips with a mysterious air the author with her hands loaded with large, brightly colored rings, one of which “navajo beetle ring”. In addition to the representation of various frightening creatures, pencil reproductions of horror magazine front pages regularly punctuate the narration in both volumes.

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