American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1

Sean Murphy's striking cover for this 2011 Vertigo miniseries sets the tone immediately: a snarling Nazi vampire looms large in red and black behind two armed figures — a woman in a dress clutching a submachine gun and a bearded man in a beret shouldering a rifle — while a gothic castle broods in the misty background. The Iron Cross emblem and Nazi imagery make the WWII setting unmistakable, promising a collision between Scott Snyder's American vampire mythology and the horrors of the Second World War. It's a sharp, atmospheric opener to what looks like a tense five-issue mission behind enemy lines.