American Century #23

The painted cover by Glen Orbik sets a charged, mid-century mood — a broad-shouldered man in a rolled-sleeve white shirt leans in close to a sharp-eyed blonde woman in green, the two of them framed against a backyard patio with a grill smoldering nearby, her plate in hand and a knowing look on her face. It's the kind of scene that hums with unspoken tension, perfectly suited to "Tramps, Part II," the latest chapter in Howard Chaykin and David Tischman's mature-readers Vertigo series. Luke Ross and John Stokes bring the interior, but it's Orbik's lush oil-style rendering that makes this April 2003 issue impossible to pass over on the shelf.