Les Corsaires d'Alcibiade #4

The fourth volume of Les Corsaires d'Alcibiade arrives with a cover that immediately arrests the eye: a massive, heavily armored sailing vessel — part warship, part mechanical wonder — cuts through churning seas beneath a brooding sky, where an ominous mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke or vapor billows in the distance. The tension between the ship's ornate, almost anachronistic design and that unsettling atmospheric phenomenon gives the image a haunting, otherworldly quality that suits a story subtitled Le Projet Secret perfectly. By Liberge and Filippi, published by Dupuis in 2009, this is the kind of bande dessinée that rewards readers who love their adventure steeped in mystery and striking visual invention.