Dal Tokyo #[nn]

Gary Panter's Dal Tokyo from Fantagraphics is a singular artifact of underground cartooning imagination, and this 2012 edition wears that strangeness proudly on its cover. Against a flat teal field, Panter renders three distinct vignettes in his characteristically raw, energetic line work: a writhing tangle of muscular figures locked in struggle on the left, a boxy animate structure with a grinning face at center, and a toothy anthropomorphic airplane banking hard to the right. Every element — script, illustration, color, and lettering — comes from Panter's own hand, making this a remarkably unified vision from one of alternative comics' most distinctive voices.