Monstress #9

Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda's Monstress continues its richly imagined world with issue nine, and the cover by Sana Takeda is a genuine delight — a fox-eared child in a striped outfit and yellow scarf stands at the railing of a steam-powered ship alongside an orange tabby cat, the two of them gazing out across churning seas. The whole image is framed in an elaborate gilt border adorned with maps, gears, cresting waves, and winged creatures, with a great eye-and-star sigil looming on the sail above — the kind of intricate, layered artistry that makes this series so visually distinctive.