Blessures nocturnes #5

A close-up portrait dominates this fifth volume of Blessures nocturnes, showing a middle-aged man in a dress shirt and glasses, phone pressed to his ear and hand raised to his temple — an image that radiates quiet tension beneath a composed, almost unsettling smile. Published by Casterman under its Sakka imprint in 2010, this French-language manga brings together the screenplay of Osamu Mizutani and the artwork of Seiki Tsuchida. If the restrained, character-driven atmosphere of the earlier volumes has drawn you in, this installment's cover promises more of that same unsettling psychological intimacy.