Billy Bat #19

Volume 19 of Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki's Billy Bat, published by Pika Édition in 2016, brings the sprawling mystery thriller ever closer to its conclusion. The cover places three tense figures — a young woman and two men — in a charged confrontation with a stout, older man in a white coat and wide-brimmed hat, the bat emblem of the series looming over them all against a collage of comic-panel imagery. Urasawa's characteristically expressive linework makes the unease on each face feel immediate and real, a reminder of why this series has held readers so firmly in its grip.