Outlaw Nation #16

Glenn Fabry's painted cover for this February 2002 Vertigo issue says everything about the series' frantic, hallucinatory energy: a wild-eyed man clutches a keyboard while a swirling cast of characters — a woman in an American-flag bikini brandishing tools, a shirtless young man with a revolver, a pale contorted figure, and a blond fighter — orbit his oversized, cigarette-biting face. Writer Jamie Delano, artist Goran Parlov, and inker Goran Sudžuka bring their "Deadline" story to this penultimate stretch of Outlaw Nation, a Vertigo title that never shied away from America's stranger, harder edges. If you've been following this series, this visually arresting issue is exactly what you'd expect — and want.