Deadman #5

John Watkiss's painted cover for this February 2007 Vertigo issue sets an immediately unsettling mood: a massive ghostly skull looms over a nighttime scene where two figures confront what appears to be a decaying, skeletal form amid flickering firelight. The deep blues and ember-warm oranges create a striking tension between the living and the dead that feels perfectly suited to "In the Land of the Dead." Bruce Jones and Watkiss make a compelling team for this mature-readers series, and this fifth issue carries all the atmospheric dread that Deadman at his Vertigo best demands.