For this reading I chose My Favorite Thing is Monsters, mostly because I thought the illustrative work on the backdrop of a notebook was really cool. At first the reading was a bit daunting, as it was walls and walls of text. However, the use of bulky text along with the ballpoint illustrations gives the graphic novel a personal, diary quality.
Because of this, the story in it of itself felt like I was reading something personal. It’s also interesting that the main character that we follow is one of the few that are truly depicted as a monster (whereas everyone else seems to be very humanoid with more grotesque/caricatured features). It almost feels like the narrator/author of the “diary” views themselves as a monster (though not necessarily in a negative light).
In fact, a lot of the true monsters were depicted as being entirely human (the lady at the diner telling a character that he didn’t belong there, or the two men with ill intentions who had jumped out of the car towards a woman walking down the street). My Favorite Thing is Monsters is experimental in format, and manages to work in a way that I feel like only works with this type of story and art. The use of iconic imagery in the horror genre is important in connecting the audience further with the story. Recognizing how vampires behave, or how movie monsters in general behave gives the audience a point of reference that grounds the story (even if the main character is a monster, it’s still realistically portrayed).
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