Loveless #9

Vertigo's post-Civil War western Loveless reaches its ninth issue with a cover by Marcelo Frusin that sets a brooding, blood-red mood — a lone silhouetted rider on horseback faces a blazing sunset while three anguished, screaming faces loom large in the smoky sky above. The composition perfectly captures the menace and tension that Brian Azzarello brings to this unforgiving frontier world. "Thicker Than Blackwater Part One" promises the kind of morally grim storytelling that makes this mature-readers series such a compelling ride.