American Century #10

Vertigo's American Century kicks off a four-part "White Lightning" arc with issue #10, and Glen Orbik's painted cover sets the mood perfectly — a young woman in cutoff shorts recoils in alarm beside a moonshine still, while an ominous dark silhouette looms at the edge of the frame and a shotgun barrel angles menacingly into the foreground. It's a snapshot of backwoods tension rendered with the kind of pulpy, sun-drenched atmosphere that the series does so well. With Howard Chaykin and David Tischman at the helm alongside artist Marc Laming, this 2002 Vertigo entry promises the gritty, grown-up storytelling the mature-readers label guarantees.