Marshal Bass #8

The eighth volume of Delcourt's Franco-Belgian Western series finds Marshal Bass deep in a sun-dappled pine forest, mounted on a rearing grey horse and gripping a rope that stretches taut between the trees — a quietly tense image that suggests pursuit, capture, or something altogether more ambiguous. Igor Kordey's painterly cover work bathes the scene in warm, dappled light, giving the woodland setting an almost deceptive serenity that sits at odds with the ominous subtitle, La mort misérable et solitaire de Mindy Maguire. With writing by Darko Macan and art throughout by Kordey, this is a handsome entry in a series that keeps finding fresh, atmospheric angles on the American frontier.