Pepe Carvalho #3

The cover of this 2023 Dargaud release sets a richly layered mood, pairing a sun-drenched, painterly upper panel — where a bare-chested man stands between two women, one holding a gun and the other a bouquet of flowers — with a gritty lower scene of a Citroën CX speeding through a city street pursued by a police car. Les Mers du Sud promises the kind of sun-and-shadow crime atmosphere that makes Pepe Carvalho such a compelling figure, straddling tropical warmth and urban menace in equal measure. Based on Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's acclaimed source material and brought to life visually by Hernán Migoya and Bartolomé Seguí, this third volume looks like a stylish, tension-filled entry in the series.