Sandman #6

The sixth chapter of Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III's ambitious "Master of Dreams" arc, this 1989 DC issue features a haunting Dave McKean cover that perfectly captures the series' unsettling atmosphere. Against a deep black void, luminous teal phantom hands reach and grasp at nothing, framed by a border of small, eerie photographic vignettes — a skull, a pocket watch, a blurred feminine face, a masked figure, and other disquieting fragments. It's a visually arresting package that signals Sandman was already operating on a different creative plane from anything else on stands that year.