Sandman Mystery Theatre #40

The brooding atmosphere of DC Vertigo's mature-readers pulp noir comes through beautifully on this cover by Gavin Wilson and Richard Bruning — a wintry, cracked cityscape of ornate architecture and bare tree branches, overlaid with the ominous quote: "…in the temple, words of thunder call down retribution and death." This is the concluding chapter of "The Mist," Act Four of Four, written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle with art by Guy Davis, promising a dark and satisfying payoff to the arc. If you've been following this 1996 run of Sandman Mystery Theatre, this is the issue where the threads finally pull tight.