The Unwritten #6

From Vertigo's literary thriller series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross comes this December 2009 installment, "Inside Man Part One." Cover artist Yuko Shimizu delivers a haunting image: a figure trapped inside an ornate golden birdcage, gripping its bars from within, while a gauntleted hand holds the cage aloft and a flock of blue birds swirls freely around it against a deep night-blue sky. The tension between confinement and freedom captured in that single image makes this one of the more quietly striking covers in the series.