‘The real deal’: young UK graphic artist nominated for five ‘comic book Oscars’ | Comics and graphic novels

She’s young, she’s talented, and she’s being heralded as a future star of her industry – and yet you have probably never heard of her.

But this week 24-year-old Zoe Thorogood from Bradford will head to San Diego to the comic books equivalent of the Oscars – the Eisner Awards. She is nominated in five categories, more than any of the other seasoned professionals in her sector.

“I remember someone saying ‘she’s the future of comics’ and he couldn’t have been more right,” says Lisa Wood, an artist who works under the name Tula Lotay and the co-founder of the annual Yorkshire comic convention Thought Bubble.

“Her work is incredible and I have no doubt she’s going to walk away with all those awards.” The world of comics, British or otherwise, is famously male-dominated and it is notoriously challenging to break through to the mainstream.

Those who have made it to the top of their profession include Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and Good Omens, both of which have been adapted for television, andGarth Ennis, writer of Preacher and The Boys, also both adapted into successful TV series.

Thorogood’s body of work might be relatively small: two graphic novels, one autobiographical (It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth), and one not (The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott); but the impression she has made on the industry is already big.

While Billie Scott – about a young artist who discovers she is going blind just as she starts to gain some success – brought Thorogood a lot of attention, it was It’s Lonely that cemented her growing reputation among readers and the comics industry.

It is an unflinchingly stark and personal story of her own battles with depression – depicted as a grinning monster following her around – and her suicidal thoughts. But it is also funny and life-affirming as it documents how creating comics pretty much saved her life.

Last September Thorogood posted on Twitter a panel from the comic with the self-deprecating message “Where is my Eisner?”

Fast forward to this May and the Eisner judging panel named Thorogood in the best writer/artist and best graphic memoir categories for It’s Lonely and in best painter/multimedia artist (interior art), best adaptation from another medium and best cover artist, for Rain, an adaptation of a horror novella by Joe Hill.

Then she just tweeted in response to the news: “Uhh”, followed by, “I’m not expecting to win any of these bastards, but just to be nominated means the world.”

Chris Ryall, the co-founder of Syzygy Comics, which published Rain, says: “There was something so raw and powerful about Zoe’s work in her first graphic novel that displayed that rarity in comics: someone really just getting started making comics but who already had her own unique style, and also showed a clear understanding of the language of comics, too.

“More to the point, she seemed to have an innate sense of what rules to break to tell a story her way, and not be fenced in by established conventions, which I find incredibly admirable and more rare than you might think.”

She has also designed, for Marvel, a character called Spider-UK, a British version of Spider-Man as part of its Spider-Verse multiple universes concept.

But it was only in 2019, aged barely 20, that Thorogood thought about turning her love of comics into a career. Shy and anxious, she attended a comics event in London organised by US publisher Image. She showed her portfolio and was invited to a dinner of comic creators where she met Kieron Gillen, a British writer who has worked extensively for Marvel on titles including Avengers and X-Men.

Gillen says: “She wasn’t quite what she is now, but she had already metabolised a bunch of influences into a style, and approached the page with this mixture of glamour, groundedness and a real macabre energy. She was clearly the real deal. It was a real ‘guitarist walks into a bar and makes the old hacks’ jaws drop’ moment.

“Apparently on the way to the pub I called her the future of comics. I probably shouldn’t have, as it’s the sort of thing that gets under someone’s skin. In my defence, I was right – at least then. Now, Zoe’s not the future of comics. She’s the present of comics, and people need to catch up.”