Scalped #12

Dave Johnson's cover for Scalped #12 (February 2008) is a striking composition — a white-suited figure clutching a feathered spear stands with his back to us before a pool of blood, dwarfed by two looming, split-toned faces that dominate the background in contrasting green and orange. A lone silhouette lingers beneath a bare tree on one side, reinforcing the sense of isolation and tension that Jason Aaron's Vertigo series does so well. With John Paul Leon handling interior art, this issue — "Dreaming Himself Into the Real World" — promises exactly the kind of moody, noir-drenched storytelling that made Scalped one of 2008's most compelling mature-readers titles.