Rolling Blackouts, Sarah Glidden’s new graphic novel (Drawn & Quarterly), is a beautifully rendered and somewhat meta account of her travels across the Middle East to report on the aftermath of the Iraq War. Part travel diary and part journalism manual, Glidden intersperses endearing scenes of friendship—she’s joined by an ex-marine and a group of reporters—with the touching and frequently uncomfortable stories of unwilling participants in the West’s “War on Terror.” Despite its globetrotting backdrop, the vast majority of the book takes place in empty rooms, at nondescript tables or in transit—and yet, it fails to be boring. Ever-present in the background of the interviews are the small details that Glidden includes of the inelegant aspects of documentary-making, from the very deliberate planning that goes into catching supposedly spontaneous moments on film to the awkwardness of collecting room tone immediately after hearing about the ...