La mia cosa preferita sono i mostri

Emil Ferris’s decade-in-the-making graphic novel, published by Bao Publishing in 2018, is a singular, sprawling masterpiece that defies easy categorization. Set in 1960s Chicago, it follows a young, monster-obsessed girl named Karen Reyes as she investigates the murder of her neighbor, using her vivid imagination and a diary format rendered entirely in ballpoint pen. Ferris’s lush, crosshatched art and deeply personal storytelling weave together horror, history, and autobiography, creating a work that is both a noir mystery and a profound meditation on identity, family, and the monsters we carry within. Though only one volume has been released, La mia cosa preferita sono i mostri has been hailed as a landmark of the graphic novel form.