Nixon's Pals #[nn]

This 2008 Image Comics trade paperback collects the offbeat world of Nixon's Pals, and Chris Burnham's cover sets the tone immediately — a hard-jawed, red-jacketed figure looms large in the foreground while a colorful crowd of eccentric, monstrous, and distinctly unusual characters fills the neon-green background behind him. Burnham's linework crackles with energy, mixing gritty realism with gleefully weird character designs that hint at a rogues' gallery unlike anything else on the shelf. At $12.99, it's a compact invitation into one of 2008's more distinctive corners of the Image catalog.