THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2024! Sometimes in this whole comics commentary game you realise to your great surprise that there’s someone whose work you have been covering on and off for many years and yet you have never actually got around to interviewing them. That’s the case with Emilia McKenzie, aka Emix Regulus, whose work we have spotlighted through her own self-published comics, contributions to anthologies, and her Broken Frontier Award-winning graphic memoir But You Have Friends from Top Shelf last year. McKenzie’s practice ranges from the borderline abstract to heartfelt autobio in the aforementioned But You Have Friends which dealt with the loss of a friend.
In time for Thought Bubble we caught up with her to chat about her festival-debuting The Troublesome Stone and Other Comics, the evolving UK small press scene, and exploring existential questions…
ANDY OLIVER: You’ve been a fixture on the UK small press scene for a while now. Indeed we first reviewed your work at BF around a decade ago. This is the first time we have interviewed you though. So to begin with can you introduce yourself to the Broken Frontier readership and give them a potted history of your journey into comics to date?
EMILIA MCKENZIE: I’ve been making and self-publishing comics since around 2008, mostly under the alias Emix Regulus. Most of my work takes the form of weird stories inspired by stuff like: microscopic worlds, dreams, sci-fi, fantasy, emotions, the inside of the body and the mind. I’ve been a contributor to the excellent Decadence anthology and Finland’s KUTI magazine. In 2015 my work was included in Over the Line, a showcase of poetry comics published by Sidekick Books and endorsed by Alan Moore, and in 2016 I edited and produced Infundibulum, a collection of sci-fi, horror and fantasy stories by women.
From The Troublesome Stone and Other Stories
My first full-length graphic novel But You Have Friends was published by Top Shelf last year (2023). The book is a memoir about the loss of a very dear friend and it is quite different to my earlier work. Visually I used a more immediate and raw style, and the storytelling is more direct and personal. I think maybe what all of my work has in common however is a preoccupation with interiority both literal and metaphorical, and humour. Making But You Have Friends was a long process which has to some extent changed my approach to comics and storytelling.
AO: Your debut comic at Thought Bubble this year is The Troublesome Stone and Other Comics. What kind of tales can readers expect from within its pages?
MCKENZIE: The main story, entitled ‘The Troublesome Stone,’ is about someone who encounters a strange goblin who insists on revealing all the things she would rather keep secret. Uh oh! There’s also a tale about an alchemical quest, and a poetry comic about things growing underground. But I think maybe the themes are around vulnerability, love and personal transformation.
From The Troublesome Stone and Other Stories
AO: The Troublesome Stone explores some profound existential questions within its concise page count. Why do you think comics, in particular, are such an effective medium for communicating those themes?
MCKENZIE: For me, narratives (fictional or otherwise) are the most powerful way to explore abstract ideas and existential questions. I think when you are both writing and drawing a story there’s something particularly intense about that combination. Even if you’re not talking about something personal you are revealing so much and the outcome is uniquely different to either prose fiction or visual art.
AO: Let’s turn to your creative process. What mediums do you work in?
MCKENZIE: Most of my work is created using a Staedtler 0.05 fineliner, sometimes with colour added in Photoshop. A year ago I started using Procreate on the iPad which has encouraged me to experiment more with colour and texture… plus it makes it possible to work almost anywhere, which is good because I’m always travelling by train.
AO: Last year your graphic memoir But You Have Friends from Top Shelf Productions won the Best Graphic Non-Fiction category in the Broken Frontier Awards. It’s obviously a very personal and very powerful book so I wanted to ask you about the response to it. What have been some of the reactions to But You Have Friends that have stayed with you given the subject matter it covers?
MCKENZIE: It was wonderful to have the book honoured in this way! Thank you Broken Frontier and thank you to anyone who took the time to vote for BYHF.
Many people, more than I anticipated, have told me the book resonated with them due to their own experiences of losing a friend in similar circumstances. This is always a very sad and humbling thing to hear. Others have said it brought back memories of their own teenage friendships.
Someone also once told me reading the book felt like ‘a look into someone else’s brain.’ This is precisely what I love most about my favourite autobiographical comics, and it was actually my friend C (the subject of But You Have Friends) who introduced me to several of these types of graphic novels.
From But You Have Friends
AO: As someone who has been part of the community for a while, what have been the most noticeable changes in UK small press/indie comics and the self-publishing world in that time?
MCKENZIE: I think social media has had the biggest impact. It’s quite weird (and probably quite important) to remember there was once a time when Instagram didn’t exist. You would go into independent comics shops and discover things and the creators were very mysterious; all you’d know is the comics were strange and exciting.
AO: Looking to the future are you working on any other arts projects right now that you can tell us about, either in comics or outside it?
MCKENZIE: In addition to making comics I sometimes write short stories, and at the moment I’m working on a novella which I guess you could describe as ‘weird fiction,’ set in London and loosely themed around housing in the UK.
From But You Have Friends
AO: Is there a creator or a comics project you’re particularly looking forward to checking out at Thought Bubble this year?
MCKENZIE: Yes! Jade King will have a new Tina & Britney comic out and I can’t wait to read it because her comics are always so amazing: funny, gross, unique and inventive.
Interview by Andy Oliver
Visit Emix Regulus’s website here and online store here
Emix Regulus will be at Table C17 in the DSTLRY Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2024 runs from November 11th-17th with the convention weekend taking place on the 16th-17th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2024 coverage so far in one place here.
Art by Rocío Arreola Mendoza