The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country #4

Two suited figures dominate Reiko Murakami's deeply unsettling cover for this fourth installment of the Sandman Universe's Nightmare Country — one with a grotesquely stretched, staple-pinned grin and the other wearing a stitched mask sealed shut by a zipper, while a shadowy, tentacled presence looms behind them both. It's the kind of imagery that lingers well after you've set the issue down, perfectly in keeping with the waking-nightmare tone James Tynion IV and artists Lisandro Estherren and Dani have brought to this DC Black Label series. If you've been following along, issue #4 looks set to push deeper into the dread.