What follows is Nick going about his life – helping his Mum fix a fixer-upper apartment, avoiding his neighbour whose sex-life he knows far too much about, juggling seeing his nephew and having deep-and-meaningful’s with his sister, spontaneous sexual encounters with Wren … until one day when he stops pretending and avoiding and just – confronts. It tells the story of Nick Moss, an artist much like Nick himself – he’s playing at being a sad man in a sad bar, where he meets young woman Wren who catches him entirely off-guard. ‘In.’ is somehow exactly what I expected from McPhail, and at the same time so reverently surprising and arresting. So excited was I, that I didn’t even wait for the August ANZ-release, but nabbed myself a UK copy from Foyle’s because it’s also signed with one of his signature drawings! I die! I was thrilled when I heard that he had a debut graphic novel coming – even more that it would be an original work, not a collection of his cartoons.

One of my all-time favourite pieces of his is ‘ Lady No-Kids’ which I yearn to own as a print, and hopefully will one day if/when he restocks! His ‘ Bedtime’ cartoon is another fave but just generally I’m always eyeing his online store and hope to own a print one day! He’s one of the smartest cartoonists around, who can flip you on a dime – from painfully accurate social commentary, to thoughtful introspection on humanity. I have loved Will McPhail for the longest time, and have been following him on Instagram for years.

‘In.’ is the debut graphic novel by award-winning ‘New Yorker’ cartoonist Will McPhail. McPhail transforms the graphic novel with a heart-wrenching compassion uncannily appropriate for our isolated times. Illustrated in both colour and black-and-white in McPhail's instantly recognisable style, In is poignant, fresh and hilarious.

But it isn't until Nick learns to stop performing and speak about the things that really matter that the complex and colourful worlds of the people he meets are finally revealed to him. He staggers through meaningless conversations and haunts lookalike, vacuous coffee shops in the hope that he will find it there. Whether it's the barista down the street, his own family or Wren, an oncologist whose life becomes painfully tangled with his, Nick can't shake the feeling that there is some hidden realm of human interaction beyond his reach. Nick, a young illustrator, can't connect with people.

In a graphic novel by will mcphail