Le croque-mort #[nn]

The cover of this 2015 Steinkis release stops you in your tracks with a strikingly rendered, hyper-realistic portrait of a heavyset older man — white-bearded, ruddy-faced, and dressed in a dark jacket and tie — staring out with a weary, world-worn expression that speaks volumes before you've read a single panel. Created by Tassos Zafiriadis, Yannis Palavos, and Athanassios Pétrou, Le Croque-Mort promises a story centered on the quietly melancholic world of an undertaker, told with an intimacy that feels anything but grim. This is the kind of French-language graphic novel that earns its place on the shelf.