Shade, the Changing Man #10

The cover of this April 1991 DC Vertigo-era title is pure psychedelic fever dream — Brendan McCarthy's artwork swirls a massive, distorted pink face with glowing yellow eyes across a fiery red landscape, while a figure in a patterned shirt tumbles through the chaos below. Fragmented poetic text — "Open up my face… it is a poet's door / a mask displaced" and "I have seen your face changing in my mirror… what are you?" — is woven directly into the composition, making the cover itself feel like a piece of surrealist verse. With Milligan, Jaaska, and Pennington credited inside, Shade, the Changing Man #10 captures the series at its most gloriously unhinged.