Charlaine Harris' Grave Surprise #[nn]

Based on the New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse author Charlaine Harris's source material, this 2016 Dynamite collection brings "Grave Surprise" to life in comics form, adapted by Royal McGraw with art by Ilias Kyriazis. The cover — illustrated and inked by Kyriazis and colored by Tamra Bonvillain — sets a wonderfully unsettling tone: a wary young dark-haired woman in a blue jacket and plaid scarf stands back-to-back with a brooding male figure against a blood-red sky, surrounded by a cemetery of bare trees and grave markers, while the ghostly image of a smiling girl wearing a "Miss" pageant sash and crown rises eerily from the ground below them. It's a moody, atmospheric tableau that perfectly captures the eerie supernatural tension at the heart of Harris's world.