Splinter #[nn]

A gritty Dutch noir comic from Helemaal Hopeloos, Splinter sets its tone immediately with Victor Zilverberg's moody cover: a sharp-jawed man in an orange coat clutching a cigarette and a firearm strides through a rain-slicked alley alongside a confident blonde woman in a black off-shoulder dress, while a dimly lit crowd gathers in the neon-washed background. The tension between the two foreground figures — cool, dangerous, and stylishly rendered — promises the kind of street-level drama that fans of European crime comics will find right at home. Age Morris and Zilverberg's collaboration, with colors and lettering by Adri van Kooten, looks like a sharp addition to 2015's independent scene.