Scalped #54

Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra's acclaimed Vertigo crime series reaches its penultimate chapter of "Knuckle Up" with this tense 2011 issue. Jock's cover art delivers a hooded, masked figure holding a decorated strap or belt with a firearm, rendered in stark amber and shadow against a sun-blazed sky — an image that radiates menace and quiet dread. With Giulia Brusco's colors giving everything a scorched, unforgiving warmth, this is exactly the kind of cover that reminds you why Scalped earned its reputation as one of the sharpest crime comics of its era.