Sandman Mystery Theatre #26

Part two of "Night of the Butcher" arrives in this May 1995 Vertigo entry, and the cover — credited to Gavin Wilson and Richard Bruning — sets an unsettling tone with a close, photorealistic composition of the Sandman's gas mask looming over what appears to be a meat cleaver, both rendered in cold, desaturated tones against a wash of muted red. The haunting pull-quote, "…fragments of bone, chalk white against the sticky, ragged flesh," leaves little doubt that this arc is diving deep into noir darkness. With Wagner, Seagle, and Guy Davis guiding the series, Sandman Mystery Theatre continued in 1995 to be one of Vertigo's most atmospheric corners of crime fiction.