The Books of Magic #28

Part two of "Rites of Passage" arrives in this 1996 Vertigo chapter of The Books of Magic, with a cover by Michael Wm. Kaluta that's genuinely hard to look away from. Young Tim Hunter — bespectacled and wide-eyed — sits at the center of a swirling cascade of books, maps, and illustrated cards, a blonde girl leaning in close behind him while small fantastical figures emerge from the whirlwind of pages surrounding them. It's a beautifully composed image that captures the feeling of a young magician utterly engulfed by knowledge he's only beginning to understand, with John Ney Rieber and Peter Gross carrying the interior story forward.