Art Ops #1

Vertigo launched this offbeat series from writer Shaun Simon and artist Michael Allred in December 2015 with a cover that immediately signals something wonderfully strange: a Mona Lisa-like figure rendered within an ornate gilded frame, her head replaced by a hypnotic red-and-white spiral, while a strip of bold character portraits lines the top of the image. The collision of fine-art imagery and psychedelic surrealism — cover by Michael Allred and Steve Cook — sets a confident, stylish tone that had Gerard Way calling Simon and Allred "the next wave of the lo-fi weird." If you've been looking for a comic that wears its artistic ambitions as boldly as its visual wit, Art Ops #1 makes a compelling first impression.