ElfQuest #30

Wendy and Richard Pini's celebrated series reaches a dramatic crescendo with issue #30, its cover — penciled and inked by Wendy Pini — plunging two armored elves sword-first into a surging press of green-skinned trolls, blades flashing with crackling energy as massive clawed hands close in from every side. The title "Final Battles" promises exactly the kind of all-out conflict the cover delivers, with the outnumbered warriors holding their ground in a beautifully chaotic scene. A fitting visual statement for this January 1988 chapter of one of fantasy comics' most beloved sagas.