Chroniques de la lune noire #0

This striking volume from Dargaud's dark fantasy series presents "En un jeu cruel," written by François Marcela Froideval with art by Fabrice Angleraud — and the cover by Olivier Ledroit makes an immediate impression. A golden-haired woman in a violet gown clutches an infant while a vast winged demon looms behind her beneath an eclipsed black moon, the entire scene swirled by a cascade of ethereal, ghostly feminine figures rising from a castle far below. It's a haunting image that captures the series' signature blend of high fantasy dread and visual grandeur, right at home in 2011's rich landscape of European bande dessinée.