The Unwritten #44

This Vertigo title from 2013 brings one of its most striking covers to issue #44 of The Unwritten, with Yuko Shimizu's Society of Illustrators Silver Medal–winning artwork fully earning that honor. The cover depicts an ethereal woman crowned with flowers, her impossibly long flame-colored hair cascading down into a dark, golden-hued seascape where tiny figures drift in a small boat far below — all beneath a vast, luminous griffin perched on gnarled branches against a swirling night sky. Mike Carey and Peter Gross's series has always blended myth and literary imagination, and a cover titled "Halfway through the Journey" promises that the story within is every bit as richly layered as this breathtaking image.