The Walking Dead #71

The cover of this 2010 Image Comics issue puts Carl front and center — cowboy hat, holstered pistol, and a determined expression that says he's not to be underestimated — while a group of costumed kids rushes behind him, one dressed as a robot, another in a frilly outfit, and a third in a white hooded costume. It's a striking, quietly unsettling image that captures the strange collision of childhood innocence and post-apocalyptic survival that makes Robert Kirkman's series so compelling. Charlie Adlard's linework, inked with his own sure hand and complemented by Cliff Rathburn's coloring, delivers the kind of cover that stops you mid-flip through the shelf.