Prison Pit #1

Against a screaming yellow background, a blood-soaked, fanged wrestler-type figure holds up a freshly severed green head while standing over a dismembered corpse — Johnny Ryan's cover art for Prison Pit Book One announces itself with gleeful, unhinged confidence. Ryan's scratchy, high-energy linework channels underground comix energy into something bracingly modern, all jagged lightning-bolt lettering and splattered crimson. If you're in the mood for brutally over-the-top action rendered with genuine cartooning chops, this 2009 Fantagraphics release looks like exactly the right kind of wrong.