Ralph Azham #5

The fifth volume of Lewis Trondheim's Ralph Azham series arrives with a cover that sets an immediately unsettling tone: a massive, dark creature with a gaping maw looms behind ornate gates, while Ralph and a large wolf-like companion race urgently in the foreground. The subtitle Le pays des démons bleus ("The Land of the Blue Demons") promises the kind of fantastical peril that Trondheim delivers with his signature blend of humor and genuine menace. Published by Dupuis in 2013, this album looks like a thoroughly satisfying chapter in one of Franco-Belgian comics' most entertaining ongoing adventures.