Holly Thomas's Comics Confront Grief and Beauty After Solo Trip to Andes

London-based illustrator Holly Thomas has created a comic series titled 'Picking up a Toad,' inspired by diary entries from a solo trip to Colombia's Andean mountains in 2023. The trip was her first solo travel since her father's passing two years earlier, and she documented her emotions in stream-of-consciousness writings. The comics, rendered in acrylic, gouache, and pencil, juxtapose moments of gratitude and joy with grief and fear, reflecting the 'weird mystery of death and dying.' Thomas, influenced by magical realism, particularly Isabel Allende's 'The House of the Spirits,' filled the illustrations with vibrant pinks and greens, depicting rocks with eyes, swirling trees, and colorful butterflies to capture the teeming life of the region. One drawing shows Thomas buried underground surrounded by skulls and fossils, a visual exploration of her fears. Thomas has long used art to process difficult experiences, recalling a childhood drawing made when her goldfish Vanessa died. The project helped her articulate feelings about grief that she had previously found hard to express. The series is showcased on her website and Instagram, and the article was written by Marigold Warner, a Tokyo-based writer.