Solo #12

DC's Solo anthology gave each issue entirely over to a single creator, and this 2006 installment belongs completely to Brendan McCarthy. The cover — signed by McCarthy himself — presents a wonderfully strange figure in polka-dotted trousers clutching wild crimson foliage, with a massive thought bubble blooming above their head containing an imposing, lightning-crowned cosmic being, while a smaller daydream floats nearby bearing a grim character labeled "Lord Nothing." It's a vivid, psychedelic calling card for McCarthy's singular visual imagination, and with writing, art, and inks all his own, Solo #12 is as pure an expression of one artist's DC universe as the series ever offered.