House of Secrets #22

The second chapter of the "Basement" arc arrives in this unsettling 1998 Vertigo entry, with cover art by Teddy Kristiansen that sets the mood perfectly — a gaunt, hollow-eyed figure crouches in near-darkness, cradling a single small flame as jagged white shapes loom at the bottom of the image like teeth or broken glass. It's a striking image of fragile light against overwhelming shadow, with the figure's torn, rust-colored coat and curtained hair adding to the sense of isolation and quiet dread. Steven T. Seagle's mature-readers series continues to mine that unsettling territory between the mundane and the mysterious.