Sandman Mystery Theatre #67

That unsettling wind-up toy — a wide-eyed doll with an oversized head riding a horse, its striped shirt and painted smile radiating something just a little off — makes for one of the more memorably eerie covers in Vertigo's 1998 lineup, photographed with a dreamlike shallow focus by cover artists Gavin Wilson and Richard Bruning. The tagline "Don't Turn Your Back on Little Creatures" sets the tone perfectly for "The Goblin: Act Three of Four," a story by Steven T. Seagle and Guy Davis that clearly leans into the creepy-whimsical end of the Sandman Mystery Theatre tradition. If you've been following this arc, this penultimate chapter promises the tension is about to pay off.