Nevada #3

The third chapter of Steve Gerber's six-part DC/Vertigo series finds its wide-eyed heroine trapped under a salon hair dryer, surrounded by a chaotic crowd of fellow patrons — all similarly hooded beneath those bulbous red dryers — while a long-necked ostrich looms improbably at her side. Phil Winslade's painted cover has a wonderfully surreal, slightly unnerving warmth to it, packing the scene with vivid period detail: spray cans, brushes, and the cheerful bustle of a beauty parlor gone beautifully strange. With Steve Gerber's offbeat storytelling sensibility behind "Heaven's Tube," this mature-readers series continues to deliver something genuinely unlike anything else on the 1998 Vertigo shelf.