ITS LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH TP

Gosh! Best Of 2022

“Autobio comics are so inherently limited.” Zoe Thorogood bemoans shortly into her limitation smashing autobio follow-up to her 2020 breakthrough The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott. A limited perspective is a particular risk when the comic is primarily set during COVID era restrictions but when the door to the outside world closes, the windows to Thorogood’s mental health struggles, creative philosophies and relationships open in spectacular fashion. Refusing simple art choices and embracing metatextual flourishes with abandon Thorogood represents herself with at least 5 avatars of personality each in their own style and offering commentary as she challenges herself to create the book you’re reading over a six month span. Depressive episodes and personal challenges abound but without ever becoming audience alienation screeds.After all, to paraphrase from the book; she’s an artist, she’s allowed to publicly scream and cry and piss her pants and I applaud her for it.

Cartoonist Zoe Thorogood records 6 months of her own life as it falls apart in a desperate attempt to put it back together again in the only way she knows how. IT'S LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH is an intimate and metanarrative look into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.