28 Days Later #20

Sean Phillips's cover for this 2011 BOOM! Studios entry is a striking image of a shaved-head survivor — red-goggled and battle-worn — raising a machete against a blood-soaked crimson background, while a dark, threatening figure looms in the foreground below. The composition radiates brutal tension without a wasted brushstroke, perfectly capturing the desperate, violent world Michael Alan Nelson and Alejandro Aragon have been building throughout this series. If you've been following this run, issue #20 looks like exactly the kind of momentum-charged chapter you don't want to skip.