Stuck Rubber Baby #[nn]

Howard Cruse's deeply personal graphic novel gets a handsome DC edition in 2010, with a cover that sets the tone beautifully — a young red-haired man stands apart, arms folded, while a crowd of shadowy silhouetted figures moves through a misty, tree-lined background, their golden-highlighted forms suggesting both memory and unease. Cruse handles every line himself, and that singular vision gives the image a quiet, haunting power that draws you in before you've turned a single page.