Analog #9

Gerry Duggan's near-future courier thriller keeps delivering in this ninth issue from Image, with David O'Sullivan's cover doing all the talking: a stone-faced man in a long coat strides away from a stairwell, briefcase in hand, while several defeated-looking figures are left sprawled around him — the casual confidence says everything about where this series lives. Michael Spicer's coloring gives the street-lamp-lit scene a vivid, cinematic glow that makes the whole tableau pop. If you've been following Analog's gritty world of analog data couriers and digital paranoia, this cover suggests the job is getting done — however messily.