Red Sonja #14

Frank Brunner's cover for this March 1979 Marvel issue places Red Sonja at the prow of a dark vessel, torch blazing in one hand and sword at the ready, as a hooded ferryman poles the boat through a cavern teeming with grotesque undead creatures. A skull-headed serpentine beast looms overhead while shambling horrors close in from the shadows, and the ominous speech bubble — "Welcome, Swordwoman — to the River of the Dead!" — sets a wonderfully eerie tone. With a creative team inside including Roy Thomas, Clair Noto, and Sal Buscema, this is a fine example of Marvel's sword-and-sorcery storytelling at full tilt in the age of Conan.