Preacher #46

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Vertigo series had a gift for confronting America's ugliest corners head-on, and this 1999 issue — subtitled "White Mischief" — makes that clear before you even open the cover. Glenn Fabry's painted image depicts three robed and hooded KKK figures, including a small child at center whose wide, unsettling eyes peer out from beneath an ill-fitting hood, flanked by two adults against a fiery backdrop — a deeply uncomfortable portrait rendered with unflinching craft. The issue's own cover text dubs them "Ku Klux Kretins," signaling that Ennis's darkly satirical voice is very much in play.