Gil St André #16

The sixteenth volume of Jean-Charles Kraehn and Chrys Millien's long-running French series arrives with a title — La Cage Dorée ("The Golden Cage") — that hints at comfort concealing constraint. The cover presents two figures: a young man in a racing suit holding a helmet, poised and self-possessed at the top, while below, a green-haired figure crouches tensely amid lush garden surroundings near an elegant white manor house. It's a visually layered composition that sets a mood of quiet unease beneath privileged surfaces, promising exactly the kind of human drama this series does so well.