Cara Brown may just be starting her comics practice but this 2025 Broken Frontier ‘Six to Watch‘ artist has already amassed a small body of work that demonstrates her ability to work in different styles and genres with confidence and a keen understanding of the nuances of visual storytelling. Last year at Broken Frontier we looked at her powerful one-shot Everything’s Fine, an autobiographical story touching on themes of mental health awareness. But Brown’s work ranges from everything from manga-esque horror to social commentary. In the second of our 2025 ‘Six to Watch’ feature interviews I caught up with Cara to chat about her comics, process, and how it feels to be an emerging creator within the UK comics community in 2025…
ANDY OLIVER: Our first question for Six to Watch creators is always the introductory one for the Broken Frontier audience. Can you give us some information on yourself and your wider artistic background?
CARA BROWN: I grew up in Liverpool, later moving to Leeds to study comics! I mainly call myself a comic artist, but in reality I do almost everything. From oil painting, to music and animation. I found comics as a real outlet for my emotions and the stories I wanted to tell. I think it’s because comics create an entire experience, people need to actually spend time reading it, rather than just glancing at a singular piece at a gallery.
From Umbrella Boy
AO: How did you first discover the medium and what attracts you to comics as a storytelling form?
BROWN: Ever since I was old enough to draw, I wanted to be an artist of some sort. My whole life I have been in pursuit of the creative. I was really into film for a while, and even tried getting into acting. After dabbling in 2D animation, and losing a piece of my soul to it, I found comics! I say that, but I have read comics for a long time, initially discovering manga when I was around 12 years old. I think I was intimidated by comics for a long time. It was only after I started making my own short comics, that I could actually finish, did I start to have faith in myself. The main thing that attracts me to comics is the ability to tell absolutely any story without limits. Being able to make full a film without a camera or crew.
AO: Readers will probably be most likely to have heard of your work from your autobiographical comic Everything’s Fine (video trailer above). Can you tell us about some of the themes you explore in its pages?
BROWN: Everything’s Fine was a comic exploring what went on inside my head that year before I turned 20. Reflections on my past, regrets and mental health struggles. It touches on topics I normally try to forget about and ignore in myself.
AO: Given its coming-of-age and mental health awareness motifs, was putting your experiences onto the page in Everything’s Fine a cathartic experience?
BROWN: Whilst I was creating it, I was delving deep into all of the negative emotions I had swept under the rug, so at first it was quite mind-numbing. Whilst drawing the pages I could feel that nervous and heated energy running through me. It was a strange feeling. But after finishing it, it was a huge sense of relief. Now it feels like that chapter of my life is really over.
From Everything’s Fine
AO: Autobio work by definition entails sharing deeply personal moments with an audience. How much of a sense of vulnerability is there in bringing work like Everything’s Fine to a wider readership?
BROWN: I probably should have been more thoughtful in the production of Everything’s Fine, it was my first printed comic and I was eager to finish it. But ultimately I think it’s so valuable to have more vulnerable works out there. Everyone’s mind works differently and it’s so common to feel misunderstood. It’s important that we see works like this to reflect on, rather than censoring potentially sensitive topics.
More from Everything’s Fine
AO: Your ability to work across genres was one of the reasons I selected you for this year’s Six to Watch but looking at your horror anthology Awake in a Nightmare I am also very aware of how you can adapt your style quite dramatically to fit different types of story. Is this kind of visual experimentation a conscious decision as you hone and learn your craft?
BROWN: I never really manipulated my style to fit any certain criteria, I just go for whatever feels right for the certain project. All of the different styles seen in my work are all techniques that I have worked on for years, mainly just because it’s what I enjoy to create and what I think portrays the mood and theme of the comic. I’m still not sure if I even want to pick one particular style to stick with.
From Awake in a Nightmare
AO: Further to that, your comics can shift from the realism of Everything’s Fine to the manga influences of Umbrella Boy. So who do you count among your inspirations and influences, inside and outside of comics?
BROWN: My main comic influences right now are Junji Ito, Zoe Throrogood and Yongseok Jo. Outside of comics, I get a lot of inspiration from my dreams, real life experiences and often times my biggest fears.
AO: Can you tell us about your new comic Star! and how you approached the difficult subject matter it covers?
BROWN: Star! is a comic that touches on some very dark subjects that need to be explored with care. I wrote this comic after delving into the dark sides of the worldwide music industry. As a musician myself, it sort of became a hypothetical from my own perspective, thinking about the situation as one of my biggest fears, whilst acknowledging its prevalence within the industry.
From Star!
AO: Let’s turn to your creative process. What mediums do you work in?
BROWN: Depending on the project my process can vary. For Everything’s Fine, I inked traditionally on Bristol board, before scanning in and colouring in photoshop. Other works like Star!, and a few of the works in Awake in a Nightmare, were done completely digitally. I have recently switched over to using an iPad to draw, where previously I used a basic Wacom with Photoshop.
First Contact from the Let Us In anthology
AO: You are at a very early point in you comics journey and yet you already have an active presence off the comics page with involvement with the Leeds Comics Collective, multiple comics anthologies, and an appearance at Comics Youth’s Mersey Margins. How important do you think it is for emerging creators to become involved in the wider community to raise their profiles and build contacts?
BROWN: I think meeting other artists and taking part within the community is the most important and most rewarding thing you can do as an emerging creator. I have learnt so much from the artists around me and have been opened up to a whole world of comics that I was previously oblivious to.
More from Awake in a Nightmare
AO: And, finally, are there any other projects you are currently working on that you would like to tell us about?
BROWN: I am currently working on a 20-page comic in a genre that I haven’t yet explored within my previous works. It doesn’t have a title yet but the story touches on themes of romance, toxic ambition and coming to terms with physical health conditions.
You can find Cara Brown’s linktr.ee here. Follow her on Bluesky here and Instagram here.
Interview by Andy Oliver
