At times she doubts her own anxiety, characterising it as a performance and equating it with self-indulgence. And I loved how meta and subsequently mind-boggling the book was, breaking through the fourth wall and talking about itself. So let’s reframe that slightly and say I wish we lived in a world where Zoe Thorogood could concentrate entirely on her own personal projects like the autobiographical It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, published this week by Image Comics. The art is the strongest part of the story, helping convey her very real and very scary thoughts of killing herself.

Personally, this didn't work for me at all, but I'm glad the lonely are finding a kindred spirit in its pages. The reason for it has to do with the fact that most of those talks end up with some shitty phrase of „support“ such as „think positive“, „you can do it“, „there is nothing wrong with you“ from those you think of as friends. It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth sits in a place all of its own in this sub-genre of graphic medicine.

I love it when an artist can also tell his/her own story and wow can this young talent draw and tell a good story.

one of the obvious reasons that this book didn't work for me is bc it's a graphic novel and ig those are just not for me. i've never read a graphic novel (or even a normal novel in general) that made me feel the way i did when i read this. And it's this reluctance ever to let things sink into pure misery which saves the book from ending up as gruelling a read as many of its genre bedfellows. She starts her auto-bio-graphical-novel with a dancing protagonist, narrating that if this was a movie, it would an introduction to a slice of life drama or a romcom, but it isn't and she wants to stab herself in the neck with a sharp knife.It’s a study of “a selfish artist” whose existence and driving motivations are inextricably linked with her creativity, as she looks to make sense of her world and herself. I've read a lot of comics (and other) memoirs lately about depression, but none quite as lively and inventive as this. I think this book accomplished its purpose of documenting Thorogood’s life as she tried to get her shit together. It takes the main character on a journey through a set of common life challenges with humour, imagination and sublime artwork.

This is where It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth is at its most triumphant as a piece of comics craft. This tells a few months in the life of Thorogood after her breakout hit with 2020's The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott (a comic now bumped up to the top of my 'to-read' list). Thorogood taps into sensation and the way that it is experienced in a way that is unlike anything I’ve seen before. 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.I’m glad other reviews seem to have seen something in it that I didn’t and people seem to have benefited from the book. Thorogood switches from speaking directly to the reader, to interacting with her other iterations and to narrating in the third person, all allowing us to absorb each sequence on different empathetic levels. Drawing weird faces over people (Similar to Pun Pun Manga) and also having the narrative go all over the place, making it really feel like you're inside her mind just like your inside your own with various thoughts.