Hellblazer #206

This May 2005 Vertigo entry in Mike Carey's run on Hellblazer carries a cover by Tim Bradstreet rendered in stark black and white — a brooding, high-contrast portrait of John Constantine lighting a cigarette, his expression caught somewhere between exhaustion and defiance. The minimalist design gives the image a raw, almost photographic weight that suits Constantine's world of moral compromise and occult dread perfectly. With interior art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Lorenzo Ruggiero, "Cross Purpose" promises the kind of dark, grounded storytelling that has made Hellblazer essential reading for mature-comics fans.