The 'Nam #11

Three American soldiers — a helmeted, mustachioed NCO on the left, a weary young GI in the center, and a steel-helmeted sergeant standing watch behind them — hunker down together amid sandbags and barbed wire on Michael Golden's quietly striking cover for The 'Nam #11. The deep crimson background and the men's guarded, exhausted expressions give the image a weight that feels earned rather than theatrical. Doug Murray and Mike Golden's grounded, month-by-month chronicle of the Vietnam War continues here with an issue whose story title, "'Tis the Season," hints at the bittersweet contrast between the holiday calendar and the reality these soldiers are living.