La Perdida #[nn]

Jessica Abel's La Perdida is a striking graphic novel from Pantheon, its cover immediately drawing you in with a lone woman in a red dress walking through a twilight urban scene — a weathered wall to her left, a brightly lit carousel to her right, and a canopy of purple-blossomed trees overhead. The contrast between the warmth of the fairground lights and the cooler, shadowed street gives the image a quietly unsettling beauty. Abel handles every aspect of the work herself, and this 2006 collection is a testament to her remarkable range as a complete cartoonist.