Proof #8

Issue eight of Image's Proof arrives with one of its most visceral covers yet — Riley Rossmo depicts a powerfully built, torn-shirted figure standing defiantly at the center of a vortex of blades, syringes, and bullets, while an enormous, unsettling pale face with glowing green eyes looms overhead. The tagline "Is he a man or an animal? …Proof crosses the line!" frames the tension that writer Alex Grecian explores in "The Company of Men Part Three: Circle Hunt," and Fiona Staples' restrained color palette makes Rossmo's frenetic linework hit all the harder. If you've been following this series through 2008, this is the kind of cover that makes you want to tear straight into the pages.