Gifts of the Night #1

From Vertigo's mature-readers lineup comes the opening chapter of this four-part series, written by Paul Chadwick with art and cover painted by John Bolton. The cover sets a hauntingly mythic tone — a crowned, white-haired figure of immense presence looms from the shadows while enfolding a wide-eyed young child within enormous, feathered wings, the whole composition bathed in warm amber and gold against carved, ancient-looking woodwork. It's the kind of image that immediately signals something between fairy tale and dark legend, and a fine introduction to what this 1999 collaboration promises.