Nanjing: The Burning City #[nn]

Set against the fiery orange glow of a besieged city, Ethan Young's cover for Nanjing: The Burning City captures a lone soldier crouched with rifle in hand, a Japanese tank looming just beyond a traditional Chinese gate as a rising-sun flag cuts through the smoke-filled sky. The image is stark and immediate, conveying the weight of one of history's most harrowing events with real artistic restraint. Young's complete creative vision — writing, drawing, inking, and lettering — makes this 2015 Dark Horse graphic novel a singular, deeply personal work.