Journey #1

William Messner-Loebs wears every hat here — writer, artist, inker, and letterer — and the results speak for themselves on this Fantagraphics collection subtitled Tall Tales. The cover depicts a scrappy frontier figure, pack in hand, scrambling away from a massive, snarling beast whose drooling maw fills the rocky hillside behind him — a wonderfully tense image that sets the rugged, folkloric tone of Journey: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire perfectly. With introductions by Will Eisner and Donald Simpson lending extra credibility, this 1987 volume is a fine entry point into one of independent comics' most distinctly American adventures.