E. M. Carroll
Carroll (born 1983), previously credited as Emily Carroll, is a comics author from Ontario, Canada. Carroll started making comics in 2010, and their horror webcomic His Face All Red went viral around Halloween of 2010. Since then, Carroll has published three books, created comics for various comics anthologies, and provided illustrations for other works.
E. M. Carroll

The Fullbright Company - http: (illustration by Emily Carroll) · The Fullbright Company · Steve Gaynor, The Fullbright Company · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1983
- Birthplace
- London, Ontario, Canada
- Spouse
- Kate Craig
- Nationality
- Canada
- Occupation
- comics artist · illustrator · screenwriter · comics writer
- Fields
- graphic design · comic
- Honours
- Ignatz Award for Outstanding Artist · Shuster Award for Outstanding WebComic Creator/Creative Team · Shuster Award for Outstanding Cartoonist · British Fantasy Award for Best Comic/Graphic Novel
- Languages
- English
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Carroll (born 1983), previously credited as Emily Carroll, is a comics author from Ontario, Canada. Carroll started making comics in 2010, and their horror webcomic His Face All Red went viral around Halloween of 2010. Since then, Carroll has published three books, created comics for various comics anthologies, and provided illustrations for other works.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q20666402 · wikipedia · E. M. Carroll
In this article
Biography
Biography
Carroll has won several awards, including an Ignatz and two Eisners.
Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 1983 • Birthplace — London, Ontario, Canada • Spouse — Kate Craig • Website — emcarroll.com
Career
Career
• Illustration — E. M. Carroll created illustrations for 2013 video game Gone Home. Carroll was educated as an animator. They began drawing comics in 2010.
Webcomics
Webcomics
Carroll drew and published their first comic on their website in May 2010. Their third webcomic, His Face All Red, was released on October 31, 2010, and went viral soon after. Carroll has continued to publish short horror comics on their website. For their 2014 webcomic The Hole the Fox Did Make, Carroll attempted to create unease using a limited format. This webcomic was made during breaks between other work, and the format facilitated drawing in "small chunks". Another webcomic, Margot's Room, presents the reader with a child's bedroom; clicking on objects in the room presents parts of the story. A poem at the start suggests a reading order, but the comic can be read in any order. Their 2016 webcomic Some Other Animal's Meat was adapted as "The Outside" for the Netflix horror anthology Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022). As of 2026 January, the latest webcomic on their website is A Pretty Place, published in 2023.
Other media
Other media
Carroll created illustrations for the 2013 indie video games Gone Home and The Yawhg.
Personal life
Personal life
Carroll was born in London, Ontario. Their parents divorced when Carroll was in high school. As of 2014, they are based in Stratford, Ontario. They are married to Kate Craig.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1983
E. M. Carroll born at London.
Publications
• Through the Woods. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books. 2014., • "Ann by the Bed" (Frontier #6). San Francisco: Youth in Decline. 2014. • Marika McCoola; Emily Carroll (2015). Baba Yaga's Assistant. Somerville: Candlewick Press.,. • "Beneath the Dead Oak Tree". Leeds: Shortbox. 2018. • Laurie Halse Anderson; Emily Carroll (2018). Speak: The Graphic Novel. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux., • When I Arrived at the Castle. Toronto: Koyama Press. 2019., • A Guest in the House. New York: First Second. 2023.,
Carroll's work has been included in a number of comic anthologies, including Explorer: Mystery Boxes, Fairy Tale Comics, Creepy and The Witching Hour. In 2014, Carroll published Through the Woods, an anthology of four original stories and an adaptation of His Face All Red for the print format. According to CBR, it was first announced in 2011 and was to be titled His Face All Red and Other Stories. About adapting a webcomic to print, Carroll said: "I think it might be more successful on the screen, to be honest. Because page turns became really important. With horror comics or any sort of suspense comics, if you have a set up for a scare on the left-hand page and the scare itself on the right-hand page the effect would disappear immediately." Through the Woods won Eisner, Ignatz, and British Fantasy awards. Carroll illustrated the 2015 graphic novel Baba Yaga's Assistant from Candlewick Press and a 2018 graphic novel adaptation of Speak. In 2019, they published When I Arrived at the Castle, a graphic novel which they wrote and illustrated. In 2023, they published A Guest in the House, an adult horror graphic novel, through First Second Books.
Reception
Articles at CBR have described Carroll as a "webcomics wunderkind" and "a master of atmosphere and mood." They have praising Carroll's "vibrant colors, exquisite pacing, and genuinely creepy, genuinely bleak stories of murder and monstrousness." The magazine Room said of their work: "Beautiful, yet delicately sinister, fairy-tale comics evoke a feeling of isolation that twists into suspense as the reader clicks and scrolls through a horror story and that lingers in the mind long after the final panel." Paste Magazine called their comic The Hole the Fox Did Make one of the best webcomics of 2014. Carroll's 2019 book, When I Arrived at the Castle, received positive reviews. The Comics Journal said that Carrol has an "incredible capacity to scare" and that "while there is a moral, Carroll deftly avoids moralizing." A review for WomenWriteAboutComics called it a "dark, delicious fantasy" and said: "It's the kind of story that needs multiple readings, not because it's confusing, but because there's so much to unravel, so much thematic detail to sift through." PopMatters rated it 8 out of 10. Their 2023 release A Guest in the House was likewise positively received, earning a starred review from Booklist. The Comics Journal hailed the graphic novel as "a resounding success of horror in the medium of comics" that "goes beyond the many preconceived notions of the genre to explore identity, isolation, [and] what it means to belong." The Beat, calling it "one of the best comics of the year," observed a "strong plot with tonal and atmospheric visual choices so subtle, many readers might not know what the cartoonist is up to, not technically, but they sure will feel the effects." A more mixed review from NPR held that the book was "an impressively long and gorgeous volume that delivers an uncanny, wild ride" but that the "mechanics of its plot are a bit more unsteady." The book was listed as one of the "best Canadian comics of 2023" by the CBC and one of the "notable books of 2023" by The New York Times.
Awards
• Year — Nominated work — Award — Category — Result — Ref. • 2011 — Joe Shuster Award — Outstanding Web Comics Creator — rowspan="2" • 2012 • Doug Wright Award — Spotlight Award • 2014 — "Out of Skin" — Pigskin Peters Award — rowspan="7" • 2015 — Through the Woods — British Fantasy Award — Best Comic/Graphic Novel • Ignatz Awards — Outstanding Artist • Eisner Awards — Best Graphic Album—Reprint • "When the Darkness Presses" — Best Short Story • 2019 — "Beneath the Dead Oak Tree" — Joe Shuster Award — Outstanding Cartoonist • 2024 — A Guest in the House — Doug Wright Award — Best Comic • Lambda Literary Awards — LGBTQ+ Comics • Los Angeles Times Book Prize — Graphic Novel/Comics
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Collins, Sean T. Emily Carroll's His Face All Red and Other Stories headed to boookstores via Simon & Schuster. Comic Book Resources. 2011-12-05.
- 2.Hubbard, Taryn. An interview with Emily Carroll: A Fairy-Tale Teller in the Digital Age. Room Magazine. 2014.
- 3.emily carroll. LiveJournal.
- 4.Berman, Judy. Guillermo del Toro Is Rolling Out a Netflix Horror Anthology. Here Are the 2 Must-Watch Episodes. Time. 25 October 2022.
- 5.Carroll, E.M. EM Carroll Art & Comics. emcarroll.com.
- 6.Dueben, Alex. Emily Carroll Walks "Through the Woods". Comic Book Resources. 2014-08-21.
- 7.Woerner, Meredith. Exclusive Horror Story From The Absolutely Chilling Through The Woods. io9. 2014-07-17.
- 8.Whitbrook, James. Here Are Your Eisner 2015 Winners!. io9. July 11, 2015.
- 9.The Comics Reporter. Your 2015 Ignatz Award Winners!. 2015-09-20.
- 10.Alverson, Brigid. Comics A.M. | Emily Carroll's 'Through the Woods' wins British Fantasy Award. Comic Book Resources. 2015-10-26.
- 11.BABA YAGA'S ASSISTANT. Kirkus Reviews. June 5, 2015.
- 12.Lodge, Sally. 'Speak' to Be Adapted as a Graphic Novel. Publishers Weekly. 2013-08-01.
- 13.Bilkhu, Joti. Laurie Halse Andersen’s speak: the graphic novel : creating and resisting aesthetic distancing to discuss the trauma of sexual violence. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. 14. 3. 440–452. 2023-05-04. 2150-4857.
- 14.Hennum, Shea. Reviews: When I Arrived at the Castle. The Comics Journal. April 25, 2019.
- 15.A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll. Publishers Weekly. 2023-03-22.
- 16.Smith, Zack. Emily Carroll Takes Us THROUGH THE WOODS. Newsarama. 2014-09-10.
- 17.Chambers, Becky. Rally Your Friends and Face The Yawhg, A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Game With Artwork by Emily Carroll. The Mary Sue. 2013-05-31.
- 18.Jackson, Frannie. The 20 Best Webcomics of 2014. Paste Magazine. 2014-12-17.
- 19.Brinks, Melissa. When I Arrived at the Castle is a Dark, Delicious Fantasy. Women Write About Comics. 2019-05-23.
- 20.Gavaler, Chris. Pussycats, Lesbian Vampires, and the Blood-Splattered Erotica of Emily Carroll's 'When I Arrived at the Castle'. PopMatters. 2019-03-04.
- 21.Hutley, Krista. A Guest in the House. Booklist. July 2023.
- 22.Bies, Sadia. A Guest in the House. The Comics Journal. Fantagraphics. 8 October 2024.
- 23.Quaintance, Zack. GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: A GUEST IN THE HOUSE is a stunner. The Beat: The Blog of Comics Culture. Superlime Media. 27 October 2023.
- 24.Oksman, Tahneer. 'A Guest in the House' rests on atmosphere, delivering an uncanny, wild ride. NPR. 28 August 2023.
- 25.Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The best Canadian comics of 2023. CBC Books. 11 December 2023.
- 26.New York Times. 100 Notable Books of 2023. New York Times Book Review. 21 November 2023.
- 27.The Joe Shuster Awards. 2011 Nominees and Winners. 2011-06-18.
- 28.Boyd, Kevin A. The 2012 Joe Shuster Award winners. The Joe Shuster Awards. 2012-09-15.
- 29.Doug Wright Award. Past Winners.
- 30.MacDonald, Heidi. 2019 Joe Shuster Awards winners including Zdarsky, Kerschl, Carroll and Variant Edition. The Beat. 2019-09-16.
- 31.Stratford author Emily Carroll wins 2024 Doug Wright Award for best comic. CBC Books. 13 May 2024.
- 32.Schnelbach, Leah. An Interview With Three Finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction. Reactor. 2024-06-11.
- 33.2024 Winners. Lambda Literary.
- 34.Gelt, Jessica. L.A. Times Book Prize winners named in a ceremony filled with support for USC valedictorian Asna Tabassum. Los Angeles Times. California Times. 19 April 2024.
- 35.Randle, Chris. Monsters at the Door. Hazlitt. 2014-08-07.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q20666402: E. M. CarrollWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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