Emil Ferris

Emil Ferris studied at School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is graphic novel and comic. Works named in the authority record are My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. Distinctions recorded are Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist, Eisner Award for Best Coloring, Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist and Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize.

• Name — Emil Ferris • Born — 1962 • Birthplace — Chicago, Illinois • Field — Graphic novels, writing • Training — School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) (BFA, MFA) • Works — My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

Emil Ferris was born to Eleanor Spiess-Ferris and Mike Ferris on Chicago's South Side and grew up in the North Side's Uptown neighborhood. Her parents are artists who met at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she would often visit the Art Institute of Chicago with them. Ferris traces her Hispanic lineage from Indigenous Mexico to Spain, German, French, Irish emigres, and Sephardic Jewish descent from her mother's side and is also of Lebanese descent from her father's side. Ferris' mother took diethylstilbestrol when pregnant, leading Ferris to say she was biologically male but transformed to female in utero, and she therefore identifies with others who have gender dysphoria. Ferris identified early in her life as a lesbian but later on came to see herself as bisexual. She was sexually abused as a child, which she says negatively affected her ability to draw in a cartoon style for many years. Ferris was obsessed with monsters as a child, eagerly looking forward to Creature Features on Saturday nights, which had monsters she would weep for. Ferris had scoliosis, and to get attention on the playground, she told horror stories. Ferris has discussed how she saw herself as a child: observing the oppressive social role her beautiful mother, as well as other humans, had to play. As a child, Ferris was part of a theatrical troupe near the Graceland Cemetery — which she visited, hoping to find monsters or a ghost. Ferris gained an understanding of World War II by talking to Holocaust survivors who lived in the neighborhood of Rogers Park, which she had moved to. She would visit the owner of a gallery who had an identification number tattoo, as well as elderly survivors, forming a connection between their experiences and monsters. In 2001, when she was 40, Ferris contracted West Nile fever from a mosquito bite. Three weeks after going to the hospital, she was paralyzed from the waist down and lost movement in her right hand. She eventually regained motor functionality and returned to working and drawing, receiving a MFA in creative writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

• Illustration — Ferris discussing My Favorite Thing Is Monsters with Michael Cavna at Small Press Expo 2017 Ferris worked as a freelance illustrator and toy designer for clients such as McDonald's and Takara Tomy before becoming an author. While recovering from the paralysis caused by West Nile fever, Ferris worked on her graphic novel. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters tells the story of Karen Reyes, a 10-year-old girl and fan of monster movies (like Ferris herself) who, growing up amidst the social tensions of 1960s Chicago, investigates the death of her upstairs neighbor. The book is written and drawn in the form of Reyes' diary notebook, with crosshatched artwork drawn with a ballpoint pen. The 400-page My Favorite Thing is Monsters (volume one) was released in 2017 by Fantagraphics, receiving praise from authors like Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, and Chris Ware; it was regarded as one of the best comics of 2017. My Favorite Thing is Monsters volume two was released on May 24, 2024. In April 2022, Ferris was reported among the more than three dozen comics creators who contributed to Operation USA's benefit anthology book, Comics for Ukraine: Sunflower Seeds, a project spearheaded by editor Scott Dunbier, whose profits would be donated to relief efforts for Ukrainian refugees resulting from the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

When Ferris contracted West Nile virus at age 40, she was the single mother of a six-year-old daughter named Ruby.

Emil Ferris is recorded as having received Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist, Eisner Award for Best Coloring and Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist.