The Books of Magic #14

The Books of Magic #14 brings a haunting stillness to the Vertigo line, with a cover by Charles Vess that rewards careful study. A young dark-haired boy stands small before an enormous, ancient tree whose gnarled roots seem to churn and writhe like something alive — red fabric draped across poles and branches like tattered sails, while small strange figures and curious objects (a tire swing, a lantern, a birdcage) hang from its limbs against a warm, amber dusk sky. John Ney Rieber and Peter Gross's "What Fire Leaves Us" promises the kind of quietly unsettling storytelling that made this Vertigo series such a compelling corner of the DC universe in 1995.