The Maxx #4

Issue four of Sam Kieth and William Messner-Loebs's surreal Image series puts the Maxx's sheer physical presence front and center — his massive purple back dominates the composition as unnerving, pink-toned figures leer and react on either side of him, graffiti-scrawled chaos swirling around the edges. Kieth's cover art (inked by Kieth himself) captures the book's distinctive blend of raw muscularity and unsettling dreamlike menace perfectly. With Steve Oliff and collaborators delivering the rich, moody color work, "The Land Bites" promises the kind of off-kilter storytelling that made The Maxx one of 1993's most visually distinctive reads.