2000 AD #656

A brooding atmosphere hangs over this December 1989 prog as John Ridgway's cover plunges us into a shadowy, twisted woodland where two figures — one wielding a torch, the other armed — stand warily amid gnarled branches while enormous, snarling creatures loom in the foreground. The tagline "Grunt Country! The Dead Man goes down to the woods today…" sets an ominous backwoods tone that feels genuinely unsettling. It's a beautifully moody piece of cover work from Ridgway, and a fine mid-season entry in the long-running weekly British anthology.