Creator: Zoe Thorogood
Image Comics: September 2023 (fourth printing).
Below is the substance of a press release issued by Image Comics in May 2022. Mr Stephenson seemed to be at a loss as to what to write, his fingers tangled on his keyboard as he struggled to be upbeat about a title which is generally not upbeat at all. It does not seem to be especially accurate factually, either:
It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth, an original graphic novel by up-and-comer Zoe Thorogood (The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, Joe Hill’s Rain), will hit shelves from Image Comics this November. In It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth cartoonist Zoe Thorogood records six 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. This fresh and thought provoking auto-bio-graphic is an intimate and metanarrative look into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.
“This book has served as a creative sanctuary for me from the day it was conceived—an experimental playground that I hope will inspire, disturb, and comfort in equal measure,” said Thorogood.
Eric Stephenson, Publisher at Image Comics, added: “Zoe’s debut graphic novel, The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, was one of the highlights of 2020, and we were thrilled when she approached us about publishing her next project… which as it turns out, will be the project after this one! But one of the great things about exciting new talent is that the creative process often takes on a life of its own and It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth was a project that had to happen, very much to everyone’s delight. This is excellent work by one of comics’ best new voices!”
“Autobiography is only to be trusted,” said George Orwell, a famous curmudgeon who probably would have been shot in the neck even if he hadn’t been fighting in the Spanish Civil War, “when it reveals something disgraceful. A man [or woman] who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” This autobiography reminds us of a small child repeatedly touching a hotplate, waving fingers around with every painful touch. When viewed from up on high, there is a linear plot. But back down on the ground, these pages are Ms Thorogood’s thoughts, put to words and drawings, with little structural integrity to them. That absence of the compositional indicia of a story conveys various flavours of honesty: vanilla funny honesty; brutal honest; painful honesty; dejected honesty; the adept honesty of recognising one’s own avoidance behaviours; the honesty which comes from love and companionship; the honesty of having to go to a clinic alone when your new boyfriend tells you his ex- rang him to say he had given her an STD; the honesty of crying loneliness.
In creating this work, Ms Thorogood keeps touching the hotplate despite herself. We trust it because there is little in it which is defeated but hidden from us.
The autobiography is technically not just about one person. Ms Thorogood represents parts of her personality as different characters. Ms Thorogood’s depression is a big, menacing spectre with askew eyes and blunt teeth set in an idiot’s grin. Bland Potato Ms Thorogood is awkward and deflated. Little Girl Ms Thorogood is filled with the endless optimism of youth, except when that optimism is popped and she bursts into tears. These people all uneasily coexistence in Ms Thorogood’s amygdala.
This autobiography is an intimate conversation. We found ourselves slowly warming to and then outright liking Ms Thorogood. She is, with respect, a good egg, even if she does not seem to realise it, and even when she draws her head as something akin to a boiled egg. We would like to share a pot of tea with her, but we suspect we would be doing all the talking.
The word “relatable” is portrayed within this title as the fans’ critique of Ms Thorogood’s 2020 break-out comic, The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott. “Relatable”, “relatable, “relatable”, is repeated at comic book conventions in echoing word balloons, as if the word is a sneeze of a virus caught by the gestalt. It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth however was very relatable to a great many people. As Ms Thorogood’s website About Zoe – ZoeThorogood.com notes, the title garnered “…major critical and commercial success for Thorogood, earning her six Eisner Award nominations and winning her the Russ Manning Newcomer Award at San Diego Comic Con. She also took home the Best Original Graphic Novel Ringo Award later in the year.” Little wonder we came into possession of a remarkable fourth printing.