American Carnage #5

DC Vertigo's unflinching crime series delivers another gut-punch with this fifth issue, its cover by Ben Oliver presenting a bloodied man splayed face-up at the water's edge, surrounded by circling seagulls that lend the scene an eerie, almost funereal stillness. The downward perspective and sun-drenched palette make the image simultaneously beautiful and deeply unsettling — exactly the kind of visual tension that has earned American Carnage praise as "the comic book of our times." With Bryan Hill writing, Leandro Fernández on art, and Dean White's rich colors, this mature-readers title continues to be one of 2019's most seriously crafted crime comics.