Monsters, published by Fantagraphics Press, hit shelves in February and instantly garnered glowing reviews that called it a zenith in the medium.

Set in the socially changing climes of 1960s Chicago, the story is told from the point of view of a 10-year girl who loves monsters (and wants to be one) and hates the cancer that is eating her mother. When her Holocaust survivor neighbor in her apartment building dies under mysterious circumstances, the girl decides to play detective.

That sets up two coming-of-age narratives — the girl’s and the survivor’s, the latter set in pre-Nazi Germany — with the personal, the political, the past and the present converging.

The story is not told in sequential panels, as most comic/graphic novel work is, but is shown via the girl’s sketchbook, with intricate ballpoint pen-style drawings that are influenced by B monster movies and classic works of art.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters is Ferris' debut graphic novel, although she is no newbie to art. She grew up in '60s Chicago and was an illustrator and toy sculptor for a range of clients. She has an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ferris is repped by APA and the Susan Rabiner Literary Agency.