Southern Bastards #20

Jason Aaron and Jason Latour's unflinching series about crime, corruption, and the dark heart of the rural South reaches a milestone with issue #20, "Gut Check Conclusion." The cover — rendered entirely in brooding crimson and deep shadow — frames a lone silhouetted figure clutching what appears to be a weapon, standing at the far end of a tunnel of bare, gnarled trees as leaves swirl through the blood-red air around them. It's a haunting image that captures everything this series does so well: a sense of dread soaked into the landscape itself, where even the woods feel complicit.