Sandman #3

From the opening months of Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg's run comes this third chapter of "Master of Dreams," its haunting Dave McKean cover setting the mood perfectly. A shadowy, brooding figure cups a small open flame in his hands, surrounded on both sides by cabinet shelves crowded with unsettling imagery — anatomical sketches, a screaming face, occult symbols including pentagrams, a disembodied eye, and other dreamlike curiosities. The warm, painterly tones and deeply atmospheric composition make this 1989 issue feel less like a superhero comic and more like a fever dream you won't easily shake.