Mind the Gap #4

Mind the Gap #4 arrives with one of the more striking covers of 2012 — a young woman in a red hoodie stands her ground, fists raised, while a snarling, clawed creature looms over her from the shadows, its monstrous jaws gaping just inches from her dark hair. The Art Nouveau-inspired border framing the scene gives the whole image an elegant, almost dreamlike quality that makes the menace feel all the more unsettling. Rodin Esquejo's linework and colors are doing serious work here, and "Intimate Strangers Part 4: Big. Bad." promises the series is only raising the stakes.