The Vigilante #12

Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane's Vigilante hits a striking note with issue #12 (November 1984), and the Ross Andru/Dick Giordano cover makes an immediate impression: the masked, goggled hero is locked in a fierce struggle with a skeletal hand — all crackling impact lines and unsettling imagery set against a green-tinged urban backdrop, with an open journal and inkwell visible in the foreground. That juxtaposition of the literary (the story is titled "Journal") and the visceral tells you everything you need to know about where this series lives — part street-level action, part something more contemplative. A sharp addition to any collection of DC's harder-edged 1984 output.