One Coin Reads 29: Marilyn's Monsters, by Tommy Redolfi

Marilyn's Monsters, by Tommy Redolfi

2016, English edition 2018

A dreamlike biography of Marilyn Monroe? Not what I consider the Humanoids brand.

It's a kind of weird cover, but not out of line with the story

Just from seeing the front cover blurb by David Cronenberg, you would know this isn't going to be a normal book. The tone of Marilyn's Monsters isn't Cronenberg by any experience I've had of his movies, but it is very much in the tone of David Lynch. Normal people doing normal-ish things, but everything is off and everything is a little too intense. 

There are some parallels between Betty Book and Marilyn

The story is Marilyn Monroe's story, but it isn't. It's emotionally Marilyn Monroe's story told through a dreamy, fairytale style window. It wasn't what I was expecting, but even if I was told in advance what this was, I would have had a hard time grasping it. It's just outside of my frame of reference for comics.

Holy Wood isn't very glamourous

Whereas in the real tale of Marilyn Monroe, young Norma Jean Baker went to Hollywood to become a movie star, in this story, young Norma Jean Baker goes to Holy Wood, a series of cabins in the forest to become a celebrity. There is talk of movies, but they seem an export of Holy Wood the way oil is an export of the Middle East. 

Graphic shifts like this add to the atmosphere

After applying and getting through auditions, Norma Jean is approved and gets to make the transition to Marilyn, which involves being reconstructed. And she becomes a star, but also becomes an item, and has more and more difficulty being a person as the story goes on. If she isn't going to function as a movie star, what good is she to the people around her?

"36 days to M.M."

The theme of "famous people are people too," is one that carries weight. No doubt that the rich and famous have luxuries the common folk don't, but it doesn't automatically give them happiness, and in lots of ways, it can get in the way of a healthy life. Marilyn here is desired, not as a person but as an object, and her success brings a deep loneliness.

It's kind of gross

Writer/artist Redolfi is doing some really nice work here. The art style is a bit grotesque and it's not something I instinctively like, but it captures the mood nicely. Especially in the close up images, you can see great uses of shape, colour and texture. Throughout the book, he drops in shifts in style and colour to emphasize the atmosphere.

Another shift

When Marilyn finally is revealed, he bathes her in white light and often renders her only in colour without lines, to make her appear, well, not human the same way others are.

Whether you like this or not may come down to just how much you like the movies of a filmmaker like David Lynch. I like Lynch's movies, and have seen most of them... but in the 90s. Mulholland Drive was the last I watched. I thought they were really exciting, I watched them, and didn't have much desire to rewatch them or follow up on his work after a point.

Likewise, I liked this book a fair bit, and read it in two days or so. I wasn't so blown away with it that I looked up what else Redolfi has done though.  It's a good piece of work that isn't what I get excited at reading. I could imagine a lot of people, especially people who avoid mainstream comics entirely, really liking this.

As a Humanoids book, it is a world away from Jodorowsky. I know they put out a variety of books in France, but it's nice to see some of that variety in their English bookline as well.