Sword of Sorcery #3

DC's sword-and-sorcery anthology delivers a genuinely unsettling image in this 1973 issue: a winged, demonic figure descends from a sickly yellow sky toward a dark-cloaked swordsman on the left, while a red-haired warrior and a blue-haired woman crouch vulnerably on the right, swords plunged into the earth around them. The cover tagline — "Are there some battles not even the greatest heroes can win?" — sets a wonderfully ominous tone that feels earned given the desperate tableau Howard Chaykin penciled and Alan Weiss inked. With Denny O'Neil scripting and a remarkable array of artistic talent contributing to the interior, Sword of Sorcery #3 is a fine example of DC embracing darker, more mythic storytelling in the early Bronze Age.