Cavalerie Rouge #1

Djordje Milović and Jean-Pierre Pécau bring Isaac Babel's celebrated short-story collection Red Cavalry to the bande dessinée format in this striking Éditions Soleil volume. Milović's cover — rendered in delicate, muted watercolors — says everything without shouting: the skeletal remains of a fallen horse lie slumped at the top of the page, while a thin crimson rivulet winds downward to pool in the shape of a red star, evoking both revolutionary symbolism and the quiet cost of war. It's a haunting, elegantly restrained image that sets a thoughtful, literary tone for what promises to be an equally considered adaptation.