Tom Strong #31

Set sail with Tom Strong in "The Black Blade of the Barbary Coast," a 2005 America's Best Comics adventure scripted by Michael Moorcock and illustrated by Jerry Ordway. The cover — fully rendered by Ordway — places Tom front and center on the deck of a tall ship, sword raised and pistol in hand, as a masked, red-scarved adversary swings in from the rigging above and a determined female pirate stands ready at his side. It's a rousing high-seas image that makes part one of this two-part story feel like exactly the kind of pulp-adventure mashup only Tom Strong can pull off.