My Favorite Thing Is Monsters

Diego “Deeze” Reyes is Karen’s adult brother, who lives with Karen and their mother and does his best to assume a fatherly role in Karen’s life. Deeze is covered in the tattoos of his two heroes (Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican revolutionary, and Diego Rivera, “a very great artist and a ‘super chick magnet’” (53). His mother’s face, with angel wings adorned, is tattooed in the middle of his stomach. He tattoos the faces of his former girlfriends on his back. Deeze has what Karen describes as two sides to his personality: the knight and the dragon and “sometimes, as Mama says, ‘the devil gets into Deeze’” (65). When Deeze becomes the dragon, he flies into blind rages and becomes capable of hurting anyone, including those he loves. When this happens, the knight “stabs the dragon back into its lair” (65) and Deeze spends days in remorse and guilt. Karen mentions this trait in Deeze early on, and it foreshadows the truth that is later uncovered about Deeze’s rages: They led to the murders of Anka and Karen’s other brother, Victor. Deeze is also depicted later as being split between two pages, to show that he cannot reconcile these sides of himself. Their mother does their best to keep this side of Deeze hidden from Karen, but the truth is eventually exposed. Deeze also has a problem with sexual promiscuity, becoming involved with “kind of lost or broken” (69) women who often use him. He becomes involved with Anka, another neighbor Mrs. Gronan, and several local women who go to him for drug money and protection. Deeze has no shame in this regard, and often performs sexual acts with women in places where Karen is likely to find him (and she does).

Deeze has positive qualities as well, and his most important influence on Karen is his passion for art. Karen says, “The whole reason I love to draw is because of Deeze” (54). Deeze began encouraging Karen to draw from the time she was able to do so. Deeze also introduces Karen to the art museum, and Karen draws a beautiful and lengthy montage of her first visit there with him. Deeze carries Karen around or holds her hand, telling her about each painting. Karen recalls, “Deeze showed me how not to just see with my eyes, but to hear, smell, taste, and touch with them, too” (59). She shows the two of them swimming in the waters of a painting, surrounded by sharks, and Karen feeling utterly safe in Deeze’s arms. When they come across pointillism, Karen and Deeze become dots too. It is because of Deeze that Karen understands, uses, analyzes, and appreciates art on the level that she does. When their mother dies, Deeze fails to fully take over the fatherly role, instead resorting to drinking and even more casual sex. Karen feels alone in the world, and when she discovers in a dream that Deeze not only murdered Anka, but her other brother Victor as well, the graphic novel ends without revealing Karen’s reaction to this truth.

Anka Silverberg is a round character and the center of the mystery in My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. When her husband Sam finds her dead, tucked in bed, with both doors bolted from the inside, the death is mistakenly ruled a suicide. Both Karen and Sam have a hunch that Anka did not end her own life, despite her being regularly depressed and known for having some sort of mental illness. In the present day (1968), Anka is living with her husband Sam in the apartment complex when she is found dead. A few months prior, Karen and her mother found Anka standing in the streets in winter, half-naked and repeating the word “Schutz.” Anka is a kind woman, though, who takes care of many plants and who gives Karen a mushy ball of bread every morning as a token of concern.

Anka is always drawn with a blue complexion, dark and penetrating eyes, and medium-long hair. She looks as if she carries many disturbing secrets, and Karen soon finds out that this is true. In the end, Deeze admits to killing Anka in a fit of jealousy as the two were lovers. Ultimately, Anka was an extraordinarily strong woman as she carried the memories of her traumatic past and never once fully gave into them. Anka was deeply scarred by the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, who was a sex worker, and she admits this on the tape: “For the child who isn’t welcomed there is always the impulse to oblige the mother… and leave. This temptation whispers to them all their lives. It tips their better judgement off balance. It causes them to ignore their intuition, to dance at the edge of the chasm…” (148). In these words, Anka describes the state of her existence and the burden she carried.

Anka is a German woman who is also Jewish, but who “always thought of [herself] as German first and foremost” (208). Throughout her youth, she experienced many hardships. She was trafficked, abused by her own mother, housed by a pedophile, molested by a girl her own age, forcibly tagged as a Jewish person, and sent to a labor camp in a sewage-filled train car. She coped with these hardships largely with the help of Sonja, the cook at the brothel that Anka was raised in. Sonja, despite being long gone, taught Anka about fairy tales and Greek mythology, which she uses to briefly escape her reality, much like Karen and her monsters. Just as Karen often slips into fantasy of her drawings or the art at the museum, Sonja slips into her fairy tales and myths: “And the garden path became the river Styx and right in front of me the river stole away Persephone from her crying mother, taking her to the dark kingdom of Hades” (142). Sonja has a garden which Anka escapes to, and Sonja protects Anka. Thus, when Anka thinks back on the myths and tales that Sonja taught her, it reminds her of that peaceful garden.

Karen’s mother acts as the pillar in Karen’s life. She is an archetypal mother who acts as Karen’s only safe place. She is a single mother, as Karen and Deeze’s father left them when Karen was very young. Karen’s mother is a devout Catholic and very superstitious, for instance saying, “never ever own a peacock feather” or “never ever be photographed holding a cat” (38). Karen devotes an entire page to illustrating her mother’s superstitions. Despite her superstitions and religion, she takes no issue with Karen’s interest in horror (instead often watching horror movies with her) and turns a blind eye to Deeze’s promiscuity. Karen’s mother is of mixed American Native, Mexican, and Appalachian Irish descent. Karen admires this about her, and states that her mother “calls herself a ‘hillbilly gypsy’” (17). She provides for her family, but they are very poor, and their class combined with their mixed race often makes Karen a target for bullying. She is in tune with the harsh horrors of life and remains grounded as she deals with Anka’s death and her own with grace and dignity. She does this all while trying to protect Karen from knowing too much or becoming too worried. Karen’s mother has a hard exterior, and Karen often draws her with her mouth agape and a sassy expression and posture, as if her mother knows just how wise she is.

Karen’s mother has glasses, long hair, a strong build, and gray eyes with one green patch in her left which Karen calls Green Island. It is there that Karen often escapes to in her dreams, to feel peaceful, secure, and safe. When Karen draws her mother’s eyes, she does so using an extreme close-up shot. It is evident in this image that Karen’s mother still possesses the childlike qualities that keep her young and vibrant, but also has the wrinkles and wisdom of old age. Karen’s mother is the rock that, from the novel’s exposition, protects and guides Karen to keep her away from harm. She does not even tell Karen about Victor, preferring to let Karen love Deeze and not think of him as a murderer. When Karen’s mother becomes extremely sick and near death, she takes more painkillers so that Karen will not know she is dying. She dies holding her children’s hands, and Karen draws her with a black rose head garb and skeletal features, as if she is joining the Tierra de los Muertos (Land of the Dead).