Absalom #1

Gordon Rennie and Tiernen Trevallion's supernatural crime series kicks off with this 2012 Rebellion release, its cover setting a brooding tone as a scarred, otherworldly figure in a trenchcoat leads a grim ensemble through a rain-slicked London alleyway — flanked by hulking suited men with grotesquely marked faces, a pale blonde woman, and a hunched older man clutching a carrier bag. Beneath their feet, a seething crimson mass of skulls and demonic figures bubbles up from below, hinting at the hellish undercurrent running through the city's cobblestoned streets. Trevallion's cover art is all cool urban dread and vivid infernal contrast — exactly the kind of work that makes you want to turn the page immediately.