Arrowsmith #4

Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco's alternate-history World War I fantasy series delivers a striking image in this January 2004 installment: a young soldier in khaki uniform and aviator goggles levitates amid a massive explosion, a dark cape billowing behind him and a red-winged creature hovering at his back, while a blasted no-man's-land of barbed wire and jagged stakes stretches across the foreground. The cover art by Pacheco and inker Jesús Merino captures that perfect blend of WWI grit and magical-world wonder that makes Arrowsmith so compelling. Subtitled "No Man's Land Number," this fourth chapter looks to push its young protagonist deep into the chaos of a war where magic and mundane horror collide.