Shade, the Changing Man #62

Part four of the "Nasty Infections" arc arrives in August 1995, and Duncan Fegredo's painted cover makes an immediate, visceral impression: a shirtless, anguished figure bears a padlocked metal box embedded in his chest — bloodied and dripping — while a dark, patterned heart floats nearby like a grotesque balloon. The imagery of locked-away emotion and a heart held at arm's length captures everything that makes Shade, the Changing Man such a compelling corner of the DC Vertigo line — strange, deeply personal, and unsettling in the best possible way.