Lonesome #2

The second volume of Yves Swolfs' Lonesome opens with a striking image that sets the mood perfectly: a weathered, rifle-bearing frontiersman astride a chestnut horse, framed by a pale, frozen wilderness of bare white trees and drifting snow. There's a quiet tension in his steady gaze — a man clearly at home in harsh country, yet watchful, as if "De Ruffians" of the title are never far behind. Swolfs' cover work, both pencils and inks his own, delivers a beautifully composed portrait that makes this 2019 Belgian Western hard to pass up.