Aāma #3

Frederik Peeters's hypnotic cover for this third volume of Aāma says everything about where the series is headed: a barefoot figure in a blue hoodie sits surrounded by scattered books at the center of a swirling, pulsating tunnel of magenta ovals, her expression tense and defiant against the enclosing geometry. The subtitle "The Desert of Mirrors" pairs perfectly with that vertiginous spiral, suggesting a world where perception itself has become the terrain. Peeters writes, draws, inks, and colors the whole series himself, and that total creative control shows in how seamlessly the unnerving psychedelic atmosphere and grounded human detail coexist.