Scalped #29

Vertigo's gritty reservation crime series reaches a fever pitch with this 2009 installment, wrapping up the "High Lonesome" arc of "Rock Bottom." Jock's cover is all taut menace — a shirtless, scarred figure holds two guns crossed at the wrists, his face radiating cold intensity against a wash of deep red, while the Prairie Rose Casino looms ominously in the background below him. Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra deliver exactly the kind of hard-edged, atmospheric storytelling that made Scalped one of Vertigo's most compelling mature-readers titles.