L'Or des Fous #2

The second volume of L'Or des Fous arrives with a cover that sets the tone perfectly: a bloodied rapier thrusts toward the viewer, its blade dominating the foreground against an aged map of Cajamarca and the New World — a striking collision of conquest and cartography. Giancarlo Olivares renders the composition with real menace, the map stained crimson as tiny figures clash in the background, vividly evoking the brutal promise of the subtitle, Par le feu et par le sang — "By Fire and by Blood." Jean-François Di Giorgio's historical adventure series continues to look like one of the more compelling explorations of the Spanish conquest era in Franco-Belgian comics.