Sandman Special #1

This 1991 DC special brings Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe face-to-face with the tragedy of Orpheus in a story rendered by Bryan Talbot and Mark Buckingham. Dave McKean's cover is immediately arresting — two abstracted, painterly silhouettes face one another against a richly textured background of deep reds and blues, each figure marked with haunting, disembodied eyes, while the words "I walk with thee" bleed across the bottom in ghostly script. It's a beautifully unsettling piece that captures the mythic weight of "The Song of Orpheus" before you've even opened the cover.