Dial H #1

Part of DC's New 52 initiative in 2012, Dial H #1 launches China Miéville's quirky, darkly imaginative take on a classic concept, with the tagline "A Most Unlikely Hero!" setting the tone perfectly. Brian Bolland's cover art delivers a genuinely unsettling composition: an ordinary, wide-eyed man in jeans and a t-shirt clutches a rotary phone inside a telephone booth, hemmed in on all sides by two looming, taloned shadow figures and a pale, cloaked figure reaching in from the lower left. The contrast between that very everyday guy and the menacing supernatural forces closing in around him makes for a gripping first impression that hints at something wonderfully strange within.