Hellblazer #128

There's something quietly compelling about this cover — John Constantine stands alone against a smoldering dusk sky, cigarette in hand, trenchcoat pulled close, surveying a blasted landscape of bare, darkened trees. Sean Phillips's painterly cover work gives the scene a moody, atmospheric weight that suits the closing chapter of "How to Play with Fire" perfectly. Paul Jenkins and Warren Pleece bring this four-part Vertigo arc to its conclusion in August 1998, and if the cover's tone of weary, smoke-tinged reflection is any indication, Constantine has been through something he won't soon forget.