The Unwritten #43

From Vertigo's thoughtful, literary series, this January 2013 issue pairs Mike Carey and Peter Gross on a story titled "Wheels Within Wheels, Fires Within Fires" — a title that perfectly matches the unsettling beauty of Yuko Shimizu's cover. A bearded man gazes upward with quiet unease while ghostly, reaching hands and luminous orbs swirl above him in deep shades of blue, as though the world of story itself is pressing down from above. It's a haunting image that captures everything The Unwritten does so well — the sense that narrative forces larger than any one person are always at work.