Dead Boy Detectives #3

Spinning out of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, this Vertigo series pairs the supernatural with a schoolboy-mystery sensibility, and issue #3's cover captures that blend perfectly. Mark Buckingham's artwork presents the two boy detectives — one dark-haired, one fair — flanking a luminous green skeleton that stares out with unsettling, wide human eyes, the whole composition radiating quiet dread rather than cheap shock. "Schoolboy Terrors Part 3 of 4: Soul-Stripped" promises the third chapter of a tightly plotted arc, with writer Toby Litt and Buckingham deep into what's shaping up to be a genuinely compelling ghost-story mystery.