Ralph Azham #3

The third volume of Lewis Trondheim's Ralph Azham series arrives with a Dutch-language edition subtitled "Zwart zijn de sterren" — "Black Are the Stars" — and its cover sets an immediately arresting tone. Two figures pick their way through a gauntlet of roaring flames in the foreground, while behind them a grand, darkened building looms under a smoky sky, with small silhouetted figures dancing or fleeing across its rooftops. Trondheim's clean, expressive linework makes the contrast between the warm inferno and the cool, almost ghostly protagonists feel both unsettling and quietly adventurous — a fine showcase for his solo storytelling craft in 2012.