The Unwritten #17

Vertigo's The Unwritten #17 from 2010 takes an inventive approach to its cover, with Yuko Shimizu framing the story of Lizzie Hexam as a life-sized board game — a winding path of numbered squares filled with haunting vignettes: a carriage, a hangman's noose, a lighthouse, Nazi imagery, and fragments of Tommy's world. At the center of it all, a close-up of Lizzie herself peers out from behind round glasses, while a small figure of her in a red skirt tumbles through the squares as though swept along by fate. It's a beautifully unsettling design that promises a story spanning many eras and identities, brought to life by the creative team of Mike Carey, Peter Gross, and Ryan Kelly.