S.O.S. Lusitania #1

The majestic RMS Lusitania dominates this striking cover, rendered in brooding greens and browns as the great ocean liner towers over a lone figure standing on the dock, seagulls wheeling around her massive funnels. Manini's artwork — he handles pencils, inks, and colors throughout — captures both the grandeur and an unsettling sense of foreboding in this 2013 French-language series opener subtitled La croisière des orgueilleux ("The Cruise of the Proud"). It's a beautifully composed introduction to what promises to be a tense historical saga built around one of history's most fateful voyages.