Hellblazer #182

Part one of Mike Carey's "Black Flowers" arc arrives in this 2003 Vertigo issue, with a Tim Bradstreet cover that layers dread beautifully: a massive fly's compound eyes and bristling mouthparts dominate the top, while a blood-red handprint hovers over a cigarette-smoking John Constantine below, a dark-haired woman watching from the shadows behind him. The composition — swarming flies, that ominous hand, and Constantine's weary defiance — sets exactly the kind of unsettling, layered tone Hellblazer does best.