Graphic Novelist Emil Ferris with Jamie Thome

On 15 October 2020, we talked with graphic novelist Emil Ferris!  

Emil grew up in pre-Urban Renewal Chicago at a time when Chicago was a down-at-the-heels, blue-collar palace where the silent picture stars of Essanay Studios still hobbled the streets of Uptown. Ferris gets a good portion of whatever strength or inspiration she has from the beauty and tenacity of this amazing city. She loves it so much she can be brought to tears while simply riding the el, but enough about that.  

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is her alma mater. The Art Institute of Chicago figures prominently in her life, less as a repository for artifacts than a restaurant for the eyes. Ferris recalls quite a few wonderfully escapist days spent playing hooky from Lane Tech High School during which she perfected my technique for dreaming herself into paintings. 

 If you've perused her work, you've seen monsters. It wasn't possible for Ferris to grow up in Madmen-era Chicago and not believe in monsters. Growing up in an ornately grimy Gotham combined seamlessly with Ferris’s childhood addiction to 'Creature Features,' a late-night Saturday airing of famous (and often offbeat) black and white B-movies of the monster genre. No doubt these two influences have had a big hairy-clawed hand in making her a lifelong fan of creaturely and undead beings everywhere. 

To view more of her work, visit her website at www.emilferris.com  

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