The Dreaming #53

Part two of "Exiles" arrives in this October 2000 installment of Vertigo's The Dreaming, written by Caitlín R. Kiernan with interior art by Christian Højgaard and Ron Randall. Dave McKean's cover is a deeply unsettling collage-style composition — a fragmented, decomposing skull rendered in murky greens and browns, its hollow sockets housing a single staring eye, jagged saw-blade teeth lining the mouth, and cryptic red text drifting through the decay. It's the kind of image that lingers, perfectly setting the tone for a series that has always made its home at the shadowy edges of the Sandman universe.