Sandman #5

Dave McKean's haunting cover for this 1989 DC series installment presents a ghostly, layered face emerging through a grid of circuitry and wiring, its features half-consumed by embedded electronic components while heavy chains frame the composition on either side. The imagery captures something deeply unsettling — a consciousness entangled with technology, perfectly in keeping with a series subtitled "Master of Dreams." With Neil Gaiman writing and Sam Kieth on interior art, Sandman #5 continues to build what was already shaping up to be one of the most distinctive titles of its era.