Sandman #18

Part of Neil Gaiman's celebrated "Dream Country" arc, this August 1990 issue draws you in with Dave McKean's hauntingly layered cover — an ornate gold frame holds a twilight dreamscape where a silhouetted cat leaps across a rooftop against a burning orange sky, while the words "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" frame the image in mirror-reversed text below. A second framing device surrounds it all, with what appears to be a small animal resting atop the gilded frame, deepening the sense of dreams nested within dreams. It's a quietly unsettling piece of art that perfectly sets the mood for Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III's interior work on one of Sandman's most beloved standalone tales.