Acriboréa #5

The fifth volume of Acriboréa, subtitled La Directive Arca, arrives from Delcourt with a cover that immediately commands attention — a lone armored figure crouches amid the twisted wreckage of a collapsing skyscraper, the city skyline stretching dramatically behind him under a blinding, dust-choked sky. Créty's draftsmanship gives the scene real weight, with debris shearing away at vertiginous angles and distant buildings half-swallowed by the haze. Cordurié and Cordurié's sci-fi series continues to push its world to the edge, and this 2008 installment looks like it delivers the kind of large-scale tension the series does so well.