Hollywood’s Role In ‘Marilyn’s Monsters’ Gets Called Out In Tommy Redolfi’s OGN

Many of Marilyn Monroe’s most popular roles were in romantic comedies but it’s the horror genre that provides the template for Tommy Redolfi’s new graphic novel, Marilyn’s Monsters. As much a condemnation of show business as a biography of the woman who was born Norma Jeane, you couldn’t get much further from Monroe’s image than horror but, as Redolfi goes to show, there’s a lot more truth to it than people might realize.

Monroe died when she was 36 and Marilyn’s Monsters looks at some of the practices she encountered in Hollywood, from being diminished to a single body part (in Marilyn’s case, “The Mouth”) to her transformation into Monroe being portrayed as a Frankenstein monster-like surgery. It’s not a straight biography or one that’s restricted to being literal (those at the highest level of power are depicted as actual shadows) but if you do some digging into Monroe’s past, you can find the origin for visuals like Marilyn’s mom sitting in a chair in a suitcase on Marilyn’s bed, baggage that she carries around with her.
Instead of letting glamor and scandal consume the conversation around Monroe, Redolfi uses horror to separate Hollywood dream from Hollywood reality, and to consider what Norma Jeane wanted when she became an actress. From her struggle to be taken seriously, to the speed at which the industry changed – Marilyn spends the story almost exclusively surrounded by men, but the one time the book includes another famous actress, she’s pitted against her as the new It Girl, with Monroe noting that she got to stay brunette.
There’s a beautiful math to the way Redolfi establishes his vision and it all begins with Betty Boop as Little Red Riding Hood in “Dizzy Red Riding Hood.” It’s a real Betty Boop cartoon (you can find it on YouTube) with Betty Boop as the famous cape wearer who just wants to drop off some goodies for grandma without being pestered by strangers. Transpose the words of the narrator onto Marilyn Monroe and you can easily see the connection Redolfi’s making, but Redolfi keeps going, recreating more scenes from the animated short and pulling back, so you can see that the cartoon is playing on TV.
The story of Little Red has been told countless times, but Redolfi chose Betty Boop for a reason. Released in 1932, this is before Norma’s evolution into Monroe, but speaks to how she would be treated by men. Redolfi doesn’t even include this part (though you can hear the cartoon playing for a few more panels) but Boop’s boyfriend, Bimbo, saves her from the wolf but then dresses up in the wolf’s skin, to complete the story. Pulling her onto grandma’s bed, he reveals his true identity and the cartoon ends with them living happily ever after. If you don’t know who Bimbo is, it’s even creepier – this stalker threatening to assault her and then getting the girl at end, but Marilyn’s life had many abusers and the sections where Redolfi addresses child abuse are grueling but astoundingly done. Sugar starts out as this separate character who Marilyn befriends but then there’s this moment when you realize there’s more to it, and the layers of Redolfi’s story start to reveal themselves.
From his long-faced characters to the bouffant hair styles that defiantly stay in place, Redolfi’s art has a Claymation appeal that’s extremely well-suited to horror. No “woah” moment is bigger, though, than when Redolfi takes an “L” out of “Hollywood” and reveals how deep the Betty Boop simile goes.
Throughout Marilyn’s Monsters there are moments when Redolfi makes a point of showing music playing. It’s never a specific song, just music notes. Technically it could be the darkest tune you’ve ever heard but that’s not the impression that’s given. Music means levity and in the case of Betty Boop and Norma Jeane Baker, all the jaunty music in the world can’t disguise how they’ve been mistreated.
On the outside, you wouldn’t think of Marilyn Monroe’s life as a horror movie. Redolfi makes a very convincing argument for why you should, going back to an era where there was no collective #MeToo movement and Hollywood didn’t have the same concerns about getting caught.
Marilyn’s Monsters goes on sale September 4th, 2018 from Humanoids.