Johnny Goodbye #[1]

Set against a moonlit city street on 7th Avenue, this 2021 Belgian album from 't Vlaams Stripcentrum introduces Stuwadoors en Maneschijn, the opening chapter of the Johnny Goodbye series. Dino Attanasio's cover places the dapper, blue-suited Johnny at the corner of a brick building, looking decidedly uneasy as a large man in a checkered coat looms behind him alongside a crouching figure — all while a car roars past with a "RATATATA" of gunfire lighting up the background. It's a wonderfully atmospheric slice of noir-tinged cartooning, with Attanasio's expressive ligne claire style making the tension feel both genuinely dangerous and lightly comic at the same time.