Books of Magic #4

Part of DC's Sandman Universe line, Books of Magic #4 brings a genuinely uncanny image courtesy of cover artist Kai Carpenter: three articulated wooden mannequins drift weightlessly among scattered, open books — one wearing a pale blue dress with a painted face, another clutching a can, a third peering through round glasses — all suspended in an eerie, dreamlike space that feels equal parts library and limbo. The story title, "Library Fines," pairs perfectly with this surreal tableau of puppet-like figures tumbling through a world of loose pages and floating tomes. Writer Kat Howard, artist Tom Fowler, and colorist Jordan Boyd continue to make this Vertigo series one of 2019's most visually distinctive fantasy reads.