The Saga of Swamp Thing #16

Tom Yeates's cover for this August 1983 issue sets an unsettling, surreal tone — Swamp Thing's hulking green form tumbles through a dark void, surrounded by a swirling constellation of masks in every conceivable shape and expression, from grinning comedy faces to snarling monsters. The sheer variety of those masks — human, animal, demonic — hints at themes of identity and hidden nature that feel perfectly matched to a title called "Stopover in a Place of Secret Truths." With Martin Pasko writing and the art team of Stephen Bissette and John Totleben handling interiors, this mid-series issue carries all the atmospheric promise its striking cover delivers.