It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood

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.

There's a whole lot I like about this book, but one I want to mention is how Thorogood uses wildly different techniques and art styles to create a mood or represent a thematic element. Her usage of line, space and color expertly conveys her ideas, no matter how non-traditional she may get. Everyone's journey with depression is unique, and Thorogood is able to use the medium of comics to craft a very personal tale about her own brand of mental illness.

I have a ton of thoughts and feelings about this book, but overall it's an excellent comic about creating your own meaning both in art and in life. I'm excited to follow Zoe's career!

This book is pretty much directionless and that is only a small hinderence to my review because I found the writers intent to be incredibly sincere and relatable. Zoe Thorogood manages to capture the ups and downs of anxiety/depression through unpredictable and even chaotic art that can drastically change from page to page. There is a narrative, but I almost perceive it as an open ended journal entry providing a snapshot in time of the authors journey up until this point. Some may downplay it as overly angsty or even pretentious.. I don't feel that way at all. I see this book as unrestrained self expression and a very promising project from a writer who was only 24 at the time of release. Needless to say, I look forward to her future projects in the many years to come.