Transmetropolitan #16

Darick Robertson and Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan reaches its fourth chapter of the "Year of the Bastard" arc with this striking 1998 Vertigo issue, and the cover by Dave Gibbons says everything you need to know about the series' anarchic spirit. A figure styled as a ragged, tattoo-marked Statue of Liberty — sporting Spider Jerusalem's signature red-tinted goggles and crown of spikes — raises aloft a small fuzzy creature bearing a gender symbol while clutching a smiley-faced device in the other hand, all set against a smoky dystopian cityscape. It's a provocation and a declaration wrapped in one unforgettable image, with Ellis, Robertson, and Ramos delivering the sharp, irreverent storytelling that made this series essential Vertigo reading in '98.