Kurt Busiek's Astro City #3

That unsettling clown face — yellow eyes gleaming, red-lipped smile stretched wide — dominates Alex Ross's painted cover for this third issue of Kurt Busiek's celebrated series, radiating a menace that's equal parts theatrical and genuinely unnerving. "A Little Knowledge" promises exactly the kind of story Astro City does so well: something lurking beneath a familiar surface. With Brent Anderson on interior art and the full creative team firing on all cylinders, this 1995 Image series was already proving itself a remarkable corner of superhero comics.