The New Deadwardians #5

The fifth chapter of Vertigo's The New Deadwardians delivers one of the series' most unsettling cover images: a stately Edwardian mansion sits serenely above the dividing line of a deep crimson sky, while a mass of decaying, grasping zombie hands claws upward from below — civilization and the undead in stark, chilling contrast. I.N.J. Culbard's clean, precise linework makes the juxtaposition feel almost eerily calm, which somehow makes it more disturbing. With Dan Abnett's darkly inventive Edwardian horror-mystery now past its midpoint in this eight-issue run, this 2012 issue is a fine example of the series' quietly atmospheric brilliance.