Lost Soldiers #4

The penultimate chapter of Aleš Kot's five-part Image series arrives with a cover that puts a weathered, battle-worn face front and center — a scarred, grimacing older man staring directly at the viewer, his skin mottled with blood and grime against a smoldering orange and red backdrop, with a shadowy figure looming behind him. Luca Casalanguida's raw, expressive linework gives the portrait an almost visceral weight, the kind of face that carries decades of hard miles. If the series has been building toward something, this image of hard-edged exhaustion suggests the tension is right at the breaking point.