Midnight, Mass: Here There Be Monsters #3

Vertigo's mature-readers horror miniseries reaches its third chapter with a cover by Tomer Hanuka that immediately sets an unsettling, almost Victorian tone. A grotesque, formally dressed creature sits at a tea table — ruffled collar, teacup in hand — projecting an eerie air of twisted civility, while below him a woman cradles what appears to be an unconscious or imperiled figure. The subtitle Here There Be Monsters has rarely felt more apt, and with John Rozum writing and Paul Lee on interior art, this 2004 Vertigo gem delivers the kind of darkly atmospheric supernatural storytelling the imprint did so well.