One of my favorite scenes involves a convention and a little frog guy cackling like a goblin after Zoe draws him a picture. The humor – which always hits – feels that much better coming out of the bird-version of Thorogood’s best friend. Thorogood’s choice to anthropomorphize the people she encounters in her life is very clever, and adds whimsy to some of the comic’s more delightful scenes.
This work’s greatest strength is how it balances levity and absurdity alongside the doldrums of normalcy – and the trenches of crippling depression. Similar to Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, Thorogood illustrates her lowest moments alongside her greatest feats with seemingly no fear. There’s an inescapable feeling while reading Centre of the Earth that we shouldn’t be seeing this – like we’re opening Thorogood’s sock drawer and reading her diary. Thorogood allows readers a first-hand look at her depression, past traumas, and intimate life interactions. This graphic novel’s intimate account of very personal experiences is another thing that makes the story tough to critique because it’s so, well, personal. Thorogood covers this six-month span of her life while spinning into hyper-imaginative asides and flashbacks that give context to her thought process.
It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth is a tough book to talk about in terms of its storytelling approach because it doesn’t really have a structure. Thorogood’s writing is so intertwined with her visual approach that the two are completely inseparable. That approach doesn’t work with It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth.
So, normally I structure reviews by discussing the writing and visual elements of a comic separately and on their own merits, and how they interact with one another. IT’S LONELY AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH is an intimate metanarrative that looks into the life of a selfish artist who must create for her own survival.” The Thorogood Method “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. Running the gamut of human emotion with her narrative and reflecting upon Thorogood’s life via hyper-imaginative visuals, Center of the Earth feels like something we shouldn’t be allowed to read – but will come away thankful that we can. From rising comics talent Zoe Thorogood ( The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott, Rain) comes her deeply personal and impossibly creative autobiographical graphic novel creation in It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth.
0 kommentar(er)
