Pain d’Alouette #2

Christian Lax's Pain d'Alouette — Deuxième Époque opens with a cover that immediately evokes a world of hard labor and quiet melancholy: a lone cyclist pedals along a winding dirt path flanked by golden-leafed trees, while the imposing brick wall of a mine shaft ("Fosse") looms to the right, its weathered Paris–Roubaix advertisement hinting at a landscape shaped by industry and endurance. Every detail — the muted earthy palette, the atmospheric depth of light filtering through the foliage — is handled entirely by Lax, who serves here as artist, inker, and colorist. Published by Futuropolis in 2011, this second volume promises a richly textured story rooted in the coal-mining heartland of northern France.