Moonshadow #5

Jon J. Muth's painted cover for this 1995 DC/Vertigo series captures something deeply unsettling and tender at once — a barefoot boy in striped pajamas stands small and vulnerable beneath the looming, clown-masked figure that reaches down toward him from above. The contrast between the child's tentative stance and the grotesque, shadowy presence overhead gives the image a dreamlike, fairy-tale-gone-strange quality that perfectly suits J. M. DeMatteis's lyrical storytelling. "Book Five: In a Lone Land" promises another chapter of this beautifully crafted series where wonder and unease walk hand in hand.