The Books of Magic #18

From DC's Vertigo imprint, The Books of Magic #18 brings readers "Playgrounds, Part Four: Boys Will Be Boys," with writing by John Ney Rieber and art by Peter Gross. August Hall's cover painting is genuinely unsettling — a massive, hunched troll-like figure looms over what appears to be a carved wooden seesaw or bench, while in the background a lone boy in a blue hoodie faces a cluster of small, marionette-like figures among ancient, gnarled roots. The contrast between that small, vulnerable child and the hulking creature dominating the foreground sets a perfectly eerie tone for this dark-fantasy series.