Royal City #6

Jeff Lemire's Royal City continues its quietly devastating exploration of small-town life with issue #6, and the cover says it all — four figures rendered in Lemire's expressive watercolor style stare out with haunted, weary faces, a shadowy industrial skyline looming beneath them. A young man in a crossed-out smiley-face shirt anchors the foreground, flanked by a glasses-wearing boy, a long-haired woman in a plaid shirt, and a blond figure in a striped tee, each carrying an unmistakable weight. Wholly written, drawn, inked, and colored by Lemire himself, this 2017 Image series remains one of the most personal and visually distinctive works of his career.