Alone #8

The eighth volume of Vehlmann and Gazzotti's Alone series brings kids into a surprisingly dangerous world, and this cover makes the stakes unmistakably clear. Two young figures in heavy blue-and-gold tactical armor dominate the image — a taller child in a wooden mask raising a baseball bat while carrying a rifle, and a smaller blonde girl crouching in a combat stance with a firearm leveled and ready. With the subtitle "The Arena," Gazzotti's cover art sets up a compelling tension between childhood and combat that makes this 2018 entry in the series hard to put down before you've even opened the cover.