It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth: This Book Is for Someone, Somewhere.

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There's no humility to aid feelings of sympathy; in fact, she comes across as obnoxiously obsessed with her depression and how 'not like other people' she is because of it, which also makes her super relatable. There’s the deepest profundity to the flippancy with which Thorogood often dismisses her struggles and worth here. Thorogood taps into sensation and the way that it is experienced in a way that is unlike anything I’ve seen before. That Thorogood portrays all this in a graphic vernacular that we not so much read as absorb only makes it all the more powerful. Adverse child experiences around the self and creation socialized me in a way that will likely last for the rest of my life.

Following the release of her well-received debut graphic novel, The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, Thorogood finds that artistic success is no cure for lifelong depression, which she draws as a looming Babadook-like monster. Thorogood's courageous honesty is supported by her hilarious deadpan humor and then tied all together by her absolutely insane artistic vision. Replete with visual metaphor It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth employs photo inserts, bursts of colour to emphasise mood changes, collage, some incredibly clever lettering choices to supplement theme and tone, and occasional step-backs into plot and art breakdowns.I want to kill myself because I understand why he did", to trudging through existence as "A vessel of meat and piss that really needs to do the washing up", to a sort of low-key epiphany and the prospect that life can maybe be better even if your brain chemistry won't play along. Still, once I was past that, even I'm not (quite) a heartless enough pedant not to feel something from the progression through "I don't want to kill myself because he left me.

In this autobiographical graphic novel, creator Zoe Thorogood offers an honest look at what her depression feels like and how it affects her life and her relationships with others. He is also a co-organiser of the annual UK Small Press Day and has been a judge or committee member for the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition, the British Comic Awards and the SICBA Awards.This isn’t a light read, but Thorogood blends the harsh introspections with gallows humor and slapstick fun that keeps this bouncing forwards and impossible to put down. If you are ever looking for a book that serves as the ultimate example of comics that do things that only comics can then this should be your go-to tome. See also: "It's a comic, for Christ's sake – can't you monologue while fighting giant space worms or something? It's a good place to get to, but it does illustrate the overall slightness of the narrative, in that whilst the artistic endeavour of the book (hopefully) acted as a literal self-help guide for the author, as readers the less self-absorbed, more engaged-with-other-peoples'-realities person she trails at the end of the book is the author who might, in the end, give us more gifts.

I felt no empathy reading it - rather, I wanted her to take control those times she realised she was enjoying her misery. I want to say that It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood is a bit quirky and unorthodox but it's just fascinating.

Način na koji se naracije, likovi, stilovi, tokovi misli i radnje odvijaju i smenjuju je kao da je istresla moj mozak na papir.

Art is something we experience, and while it is an individual battle to create, it becomes a social item that everyone consumes, comments on, takes with them in their heart or leaves behind. And in doing so it gives a bleak look into a young person who is just starting to find herself, and the circumstances she's under having these thoughts. So characters' faces will be replaced with blank masks when they emotionally shut down, or at other times they might become animals, Maus-style (and turns out it's really disconcerting to see this happen with someone you actually know). 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.It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth sits in a place all of its own in this sub-genre of graphic medicine. This book is a very beautiful/ugly and unusual exploration of the polar opposite idea - that all that matters is how you feel. The people that will really love this comic are the ones that will relate to the messiness of mental illness and this comic does nothing to encourage seeking help - instead it seems to share the message that it's okay to wallow and stay blinded by your own misery.