Joe McCulloch has heroically managed to turn in his regular weekly column on the best-sounding new releases in comics shops, despite an unfortunate lack of dependable internet access. He still won't tell us where he is, but using a few computer tricks I picked up during an internship for a private investigator, I think I've tracked him down to somewhere in rural Nevada. What could he be doing out there?
Also, Rob Clough is back with a review of Katie Skelly's Operation Margarine.
If Katie Skelly’s Nurse Nurse represented a young artist stretching her limits in her first major work, then her follow-up book, Operation Margarine, sees Skelly working more in her comfort zone. There were times in Nurse Nurse when it seemed that Skelly wasn’t entirely comfortable drawing certain aspects of her Barbarella-inspired space fantasy. She simply didn’t have the chops to convey some aspects of the story, which led to some whiplash narrative shifts. That said, she still followed through and worked around her limitations as best as she could. Cartooning can be seen as a series of problem-solving exercises, and Skelly presented herself with a high degree of difficulty with her first book.
Elsewhere:
—Reviews & Commentary. Ng Suat Tong reviews Inio Asano's Nijigahara Holograph. Matt Leines reviews Brecht Vandenbroucke's White Cube. Whit Taylor reviews Michael DeForge's A Body Beneath. Gareth Branwyn writes about Anders Nilsen's Big Questions. Paul Gravett reviews a bunch of books. So does 2D Cloud's Justin Skarhus.
—Interviews & Profiles. Michael Cavna profiles Herblock winner Jen Sorensen. Kickstarter interviews Josh Bayer. NPR does Ralph Steadman. Alex Dueben talks to Richard Thompson.
—Misc. Rant fans might enjoy these responses to the recent Amazon/comiXology changes.
Relatedly, Marvel seems to be making moves that may hint at an Amazon escape plan.
—Video. Finally, somehow I missed this video earlier in the month, but here's Tucker Stone interviewing Nick Abadzis:
