Fables #78

This January 2009 issue of Vertigo's long-running Fables series arrives with a hauntingly beautiful cover by James Jean — a ghostly, semi-transparent figure rendered in muted grays and whites, her long tangled hair laced with delicate spider-web filigree, her expression hovering somewhere between serenity and sorrow. The painterly, almost ethereal quality of the image perfectly suits the mood of "Boxes: Chapter Two of The Dark Ages," promising something unsettling beneath the fairy-tale surface. With Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham steering the story, this is Vertigo at its most atmospheric.