American Century #2

American Century #2 brings Howard Chaykin and David Tischman's mature Vertigo series to a tense second chapter with "Bitter Fruit." The cover — pencilled and inked by Chaykin — layers two distinct moments: in the foreground, a dark-haired man crouches behind a tropical plant, gun drawn, a young woman pressed close beside him, both wary and alert; looming above them, a blonde woman and a mustachioed man profile each other against a wall daubed with the graffiti slogan "La Revolución." It's a quietly charged composition that captures the series' mid-century noir atmosphere and hints at dangerous entanglements somewhere south of the border.