Death: The High Cost of Living #1

The opening chapter of Neil Gaiman's three-issue miniseries arrives with a cover by Dave McKean that is pure atmospheric unease — a ghostly, close-up face tilts upward against a cool, shadowy purple-grey ground, overlaid with a vertical ruler-like graphic element and a peacock feather drifting at the top edge. Chris Bachalo and Mark Buckingham handle the interior art, bringing their own distinct energy to Gaiman's story of Death spending one day among the living. DC/Vertigo's mature-readers label feels well-earned here; from the very first issue, this 1993 series signals something genuinely different.