Alabaster: The Good, the Bad, and the Bird #2

The second installment of Caitlín R. Kiernan's five-part series presents a quietly haunting image: a battered young woman crouches in the foreground, head bowed and a wisp of smoke curling from her fingers, while a towering stone angel looms behind her in the mist — a small bird perched on its shoulder. Greg Ruth's painted cover work bathes the scene in soft, eerie greens and grays, giving the whole composition a melancholy, gothic weight that perfectly suits Kiernan's signature storytelling sensibility. With interior art by Daniel Warren Johnson and colors by Carlos Badilla, this 2016 Dark Horse series continues to feel like something genuinely special.