Hawaiian Dick: Screaming Black Thunder #4

The cover of this fourth installment in B. Clay Moore and Scott Chantler's tropical noir series is a striking composition by Steven Griffin, dominated by a wild-eyed, open-mouthed figure in aviator goggles surrounded by swirling flames and smoke — an unsettling image that earns the "Screaming Black Thunder" title immediately. Below that central vision, three moody vignettes unfold in cool blues and purples: a brooding man with a cigarette, a red-clad figure at a microphone beneath a crescent moon, and a tense close encounter between two figures in shadow. Hawaiian Dick's sun-soaked, hard-boiled atmosphere is in full effect here, and this 2008 Image Comics issue makes a compelling case that noir looks just as good under palm trees as it does in a rain-slicked alley.