Nico #3

The third volume of Dargaud's stylish Franco-Belgian spy series delivers a freeze-frame of cool tension: Nico herself, clad in a sleek yellow catsuit and clutching a pistol, carves across a snowy slope on a single ski while a hulking red snowcat bears down through the icy landscape behind her. Philippe Berthet's clean, elegant linework gives the whole scene a cinematic sharpness that makes the alpine pursuit feel both dangerous and impossibly glamorous. With Fred Duval's scripting and the evocative title "Femmes Fatales," this 2012 Dargaud release promises espionage with serious style to spare.