Le Long Hiver #2

Set against a haunting snowfall, Patrick Mallet's cover for this 2012 Casterman volume places a bare-chested young figure at the heart of a gnarled, golden-leafed tree rising from a bleak, rubble-strewn landscape — a striking image that blends fragile life with the devastation of 1918. The contrast between the tree's warm autumn crown and the cold white world surrounding it gives the composition a quietly powerful, melancholy beauty. Le Long Hiver promises a story rooted in one of history's most sobering years, and this second volume looks every bit as visually compelling as that premise deserves.