Joe McCulloch would like to help those of you planning to purchase new comic books this week with an annotated list of the most-interesting-sounding comics to be released in stores tomorrow. His spotlight picks include new books from Sergio Toppi and Joe Sacco.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
—Interviews. Hillary Brown in Paste has a nice, strong interview with series editor Bill Kartalopoulos about the process of putting together this year's Best American Comics anthology.
John Porcellino is the latest guest on Gil Roth's Virtual Memories.
—Reviews & Commentary. Ng Suat Tong compares Lob & Rochette's comics version of Snowpiercer with its film adaptation. Rachel Cooke at The Guardian liked Charles Burns' Sugar Skull.
—Misc. Katy Waldman at Slate has a long piece on comics and the portrayal of mental illness. It's aimed more at casual comics readers than serious enthusiasts, but quotes people like scholar David Ball and Ellen Forney, and is generally fairly interesting. It also includes what I'd call an intellectually indefensible argument from an academic named William Kuskin: “You can’t separate graphic novels from their superhero roots. That origin story—the broken protagonist who transforms himself—is the true meaning of the genre.” Maybe his words were taken out of context or his meaning was in some way distorted, but otherwise, that represents some marked theoretical confusion.
I missed the recent Eleanor Davis drawing marathon to raise funds for a young man's wheelchair van, but it's not too late to help out. Robot 6 has more.
