Duke #7

Hermann's muted, sun-bleached cover for this seventh volume says everything about its mood: a lone rider on horseback moves away along a wide, curving desert trail beneath a vast, cloud-streaked sky, the whole scene rendered in delicate washes of ochre and pale blue that feel as much like a watercolor painting as a comic cover. The title "Ce monde n'est pas le mien" — This world is not mine — hangs over that solitary figure with quiet, melancholy weight. With Yves H. writing and Hermann handling every visual layer, Duke #7 continues to look like one of the most thoughtfully crafted Western series in European comics.