Les Petites Prouesses de Clara Pilpoile #2

Part of Dargaud's Poisson Pilote line, this 2008 volume in Anne Simon's Les Petites Prouesses de Clara Pilpoile series brings its signature offbeat charm to a Las Vegas-flavored adventure. The cover is a wonderfully chaotic tableau — a wide-eyed redheaded girl in an orange dress finds herself surrounded by a cast of gloriously weird characters, from a cowboy-hatted figure to lumpy, creature-like beings jostling and pawing at her from all sides. Simon's loose, expressive linework and that zingy yellow-green palette give the whole thing an anarchic energy that's hard to resist.