Monster Pop! by Maya Kern

Hey there! I just finished Monster Pop! and it’s been a RIDE- I first read in early HS & I reread the whole thing, I’m a college sophomore rn. It hit hard now that I’m open-ish abt being trans & relate to Franny literally being torn in two by her parents fighting. I love the chosen family aspect & how messy yet beautiful adult relationships can be! Basically I had a lot of feelings & the epilogue warmed my cold undead heart. Thank you for the journey! Hope you’ve been well!

thank you so much for all the kind words! when i first started monsterpop i didn’t really have any clear direction other than that i wanted to draw something fun and cute. at the time i was in college making extremely edgy and dark short comics for my schoolwork and i wanted to do something lighthearted as a reprieve from being a Very Serious Artist, Thank You Very Much. 

eventually monsterpop evolved into something that was really about learning to take ownership of yourself and your actions – whether they were good or bad. when i first started writing monsterpop, it was all pretty shallow – everyone was nice and fun except ben, who’d been raised to hate monsters. the whole “twist” was just that george didn’t end up with him and instead found comfort and love in her best friend. originally, i had wanted george and marina to end up together – until i realized that that felt… wrong. 

it wasn’t until i was writing chapter 4 that i realized that it felt wrong because marina felt like a prize or some “end game” romantic trophy that was lovable, but ultimately kept at arms reach from george and her problems. franny was the one helping george grow: challenging her, comforting her, pulling her up. and when i knew i wanted to write an arc about franny’s problems – i knew she needed george and percy together to pull her up and that them forming a strong bond was important both for her and for each other.

at the time i didn’t have the knowledge or language to realize i was writing a found family story, but i learned and grew so much during the 7 years i spent working on monsterpop, i dealt with expectations and guilt and lots of relationships, both good and bad; i came out the other side from being “hashtag relatable” and navigating parasocial relationships (before i had the language for that either) and setting boundaries, both online and with the people close to me; i met my wife and we fought for each other and we built a life together, a life i love, that ultimately became the reason i had to stop making monsterpop, because the rest of my life was so good and at the end i felt so terrible when i was drawing monsterpop and i had been working so hard on improving my life and my mental and emotional well-being that i knew that even tho the comic was so close to completion, i couldn’t continue to sacrifice my happiness any longer.

ending monsterpop was really bittersweet. i love monsterpop dearly. i love comics. i love writing. i loved writing monsterpop. i absolutely hate drawing comics – it takes way too much time and no matter how much i work on my craft, i don’t think any comic i draw will ever be up to my standards, and so drawing comics at some point became phenomenally bad for my self esteem. 

this was really long and meandering, but i just wanted to say that i am so grateful for everyone who has read my comic and supported me ending it; to everyone who read and loved the epilogue, especially the people who have told me so. i was so scared to do this – all of this – for so long. i felt so much guilt over it, i felt luck such a hypocrite, like i was being weak and selfish. and then the moment i finally announced the ending – and then later when i posted the script and the epilogue – i just felt nothing but relief. and y’all have been nothing but kind and accepting and wonderful and i really, truly appreciate it so much. thank you all for coming on this journey with me.