Emil Ferris

Emil Ferris (born 1962) is an American cartoonist, writer, and designer who made a striking debut with her 2017 graphic novel *My Favorite Thing Is Monsters*. Set in 1960s Chicago, the book follows a young girl investigating her neighbor's murder, rendered in Ferris's dense, crosshatched ballpoint-pen style that mimics the look of a spiral notebook. The work earned immediate acclaim as a standout first effort from a new author.

Ferris came to comics later in life, after a career in design and a severe illness that reshaped her perspective. She draws, inks, letters, and colors her own pages, giving her work a singular, obsessive texture. Her primary collaborator has been the book itself, though she has worked with editors at Fantagraphics to bring the project to print.

Born in 1962, Ferris remains active in the medium, with her catalog spanning ten issues and multiple international editions of *My Favorite Thing Is Monsters*, including translations into Italian, Portuguese, French, and Spanish. She has not yet received major industry awards, but her debut has been widely discussed as a significant work of the 2010s. Ferris continues to develop the story of her protagonist, Karen Reyes, cementing her reputation as a distinctive voice in contemporary comics.