The Unwritten #5

Peter Gross and Mike Carey's Vertigo series had already earned a Wired endorsement by this fifth issue, and Yuko Shimizu's cover art makes it easy to see why the book commanded attention. The image is a quietly arresting split composition: a bearded figure in an ornate red military uniform and jeweled helmet stands against a lush tropical backdrop, while beside him a vast, luminous eye — unmistakably a whale's — gazes out from a blue, bubble-filled underwater expanse. Subtitled "How the Whale Became," this November 2009 installment promises the kind of literary storytelling that blurs myth, fable, and modern fantasy in ways few comics attempt.