The Books of Magic #27

Part one of "Rites of Passage" arrives in this 1996 Vertigo installment, with a cover by Michael Wm. Kaluta that places Tim Hunter — glasses, red jacket, camera slung around his neck — clinging to the brightly painted machinery of a carnival ride while several young women sit in the cars around him. The fairground setting crackles with an energy that's equal parts wonder and unease, perfectly at home in the world John Ney Rieber and Peter Gross have built around magic's most reluctant student. It's a vivid, grounded image that makes the supernatural feel thrillingly close to ordinary teenage life.