The Books of Magic Annual #2

A massive, snarling stone face dominates the cover of this 1998 DC/Vertigo annual, its gaping jaws at the center of a crumbling, otherworldly architecture — while two young figures, a dark-haired boy above and a blonde girl below, appear to float or fall in eerie suspension around it. The cover art, painted by John Bolton, captures that distinctive Books of Magic mood: mysterious, unsettling, and strangely beautiful all at once. With "Horn" as the story's title and John Ney Rieber and Jamie Tolagson steering the interior, this annual promises the kind of atmospheric, imaginative storytelling the series does so well.