Hellblazer #284

Peter Milligan and Gael Bertrand's "The Devil's Trench Coat" arc continues in this December 2011 Vertigo issue, with a cover painted by Simon Bisley that's hard to look away from. A shirtless, battered John Constantine — cigarette in hand, wounds fresh across his torso — looms large in the foreground, while a second figure behind him casually reads a lurid horror comic titled Horror X: Beyond the Grave, its grotesque green monster cover screaming off the page. The contrast between Constantine's raw vulnerability and that darkly absurd background detail captures everything unsettling and sardonic about this long-running Vertigo series at its best.