Scalped #28

Vertigo's Scalped was one of the sharpest crime series of 2009, and issue #28 — the fourth chapter of "High Lonesome" — shows exactly why. Jock's cover is a striking, shattered-glass composition: a great owl looms at the top with piercing golden eyes, while a frightened, long-haired figure is trapped at the center of the fracture, surrounded by vivid bloodstained handprints that radiate outward like a dire warning. Jason Aaron writing and R.M. Guéra on art make this a series that consistently punches well above its weight, and this penultimate chapter of the arc promises no letup in tension.