Gipsy #6

Published by Dargaud in 2002, this sixth volume of Gipsy carries the story title "Le rire Aztèque" — and Enrico Marini's cover immediately sets the mood, placing a fierce, red-bandana-wearing gunman and a sharp-eyed young woman with a pistol before a towering, skull-carved Aztec ruin bathed in amber and shadow. The pairing of modern firepower against ancient stone imagery gives the whole thing a pulpy, adventure-serial energy that's hard to resist. With Marini handling writing alongside Smolderen and doing every stage of the art himself, this is a showcase of what one creator can bring to a page.