Jack of Fables #18

Vertigo's Jack of Fables continues its "Americana" arc with this February 2008 issue, and Brian Bolland's cover sets the tone perfectly — a battered, grinning Jack reaches toward a blonde woman in glasses while a wide-eyed figure lurks in the background and a shattered surface with a watching eye fragments in the corner. It's charming, unsettling, and a little dangerous all at once, exactly the kind of energy this Willingham and Sturges-scripted series delivers. With art by Russ Braun and inks by Andrew Pepoy inside, this is mature-readers storytelling at its most entertainingly off-kilter.