Aspirine #2

Joann Sfar's Aspirine returns with this second volume, subtitled Un Vrai Bain de Sang — "A Real Bloodbath" — and the cover sets the mood perfectly. In the foreground, a flame-haired young woman with striking red eyes holds a grinning purple mouth to her lips, while behind her two alarmed figures in dark robes stand amid a gloomy alley, a small anxious dog at their feet and a ghostly purple apparition swirling nearby. Sfar's loose, expressive line work gives the whole scene that wonderfully unsettling yet playful energy that makes this 2019 Rue de Sèvres series so easy to fall into.