La Française #2

A bearded man in a wide-brimmed hat kneels on a wooden deck surrounded by scattered papers, an open book, a liquor bottle, and a life preserver — the warm amber-orange palette giving the whole scene a brooding, almost fevered intensity. This second volume of La Française, subtitled Albert, finds its title character adrift in what looks like desperate isolation, beautifully rendered by the creative team of Carlos Trillo and Pablo Tunica for Delcourt. Published in 2014, it's a compelling entry in this atmospheric Franco-Belgian series.