Sandman #43

Part three of Neil Gaiman's celebrated "Brief Lives" arc, this November 1992 issue features Dave McKean's distinctively collage-like cover — a mosaic of photographic and painted panels arranged around the series title, incorporating a watchful eye, scattered organic objects draped in deep violet fabric, a feathered wing, and a hand print, all stitched together with text fragments from the issue's multi-part story titles. Jill Thompson and Vince Locke handle the interior art, bringing Gaiman's sprawling, mythologically rich narrative to life across vignettes that range from Atlantis to transportation to dreaming. It's a beautifully strange artifact of early-'90s DC/Vertigo ambition at its most atmospheric.