Deadline USA #1

Dark Horse's 1992 anthology Deadline USA launches with a cover by Mitch O'Connell that's impossible to ignore — a green-skinned, tattooed figure reclines at the center, surrounded by a collage of surreal painted panels featuring mysterious costumed characters, disembodied hands, nesting-doll figures, and an unsettling severed head lurking at the bottom. The "Night of the Living Deadline" banner sets a gleefully macabre tone that perfectly matches O'Connell's carnival-weird aesthetic. Inside, Richard Sala handles every aspect of his story solo — writing, art, inking, and lettering — making this a genuinely distinctive showcase for one of underground comics' most committed individual voices.