Sandman Mystery Theatre #69

Vertigo's long-running pulp noir series heads into 1999 with issue #69, opening "The Hero" — a two-part arc from writer Steven T. Seagle and artist Guy Davis. The cover by Gavin Wilson and Richard Bruning sets a suitably shadowy mood: a cigarette-smoking man in a fedora looms in the foreground while the gas-masked, goggled figure of the Sandman watches from behind, both rendered in a moody, near-photographic style that captures the series' signature 1930s atmosphere. If you appreciate pulp heroics steeped in shadow and moral ambiguity, this is a compelling place to be.