Hard Looks #1

Dark Horse's Hard Looks #1 drops readers straight into the seedy underbelly of a neon-lit urban strip, where a cigarette-smoking man in a battered overcoat glances back over his shoulder against a backdrop of XXX theaters and adult storefronts — Tim Bradstreet's cover art practically radiates grime and tension. Andrew Vachss supplies the source material while Dave Gibbons adapts and illustrates "Dumping Ground," a pairing that suggests this 1992 anthology series takes its crime fiction seriously. If hard-boiled street-level noir is your territory, this opening issue sets the mood with confident, unblinking style.