This is one of the more recognizable early works from the Schuiten Brothers. It’s a SFnal idea – overnight fog solidifies, which means that small towns like this have to employ a local fog cutter to create holes to move grain around and cut people free in houses that left their windows open overnight – one of the people he cuts free is a woman sleeping with her neighbor’s husband. The story is complicated by the fact that the fog cutter is obsessing over the pretty lady he’s interacting with in the top half of this page, going so far as to create a massive sculpture of her in his studio. The twist at the end is that she gets caught in the fog and, when he cuts her free, he uses the solidified fog as a mold to cast a whole bunch of statues of her, ignoring his duties as the town’s fog cutter. It’s a weird little story about obsession and stalking that doesn’t really sit right, but has some amazing artwork and a really simple concept.

(Heavy Metal issue #45, December 1980 – Page 86 The Cutter of the Fog by the Schuiten Brothers)