Terminal City #7

Issue seven of nine in DC/Vertigo's Terminal City finds a young, blue-bandana-wearing blonde perched alone amid the angular, industrial geometry of the city, clutching something small while a massive, impassive mechanical face looms in the shadowy background behind him. Matt Wagner's cover composition beautifully captures the series' retro-futurist atmosphere — small, vulnerable humanity set against cold, monumental architecture. Dean Motter and Michael Lark's collaboration was producing some of Vertigo's most visually distinctive work in 1997, and this penultimate stretch of the run feels like exactly the right moment to be paying close attention.