The Books of Magic #64

Peter Gross's long-running Vertigo series reaches issue #64 with a cover by MW Kaluta that is quietly unsettling: Tim Hunter, bespectacled in his familiar red hoodie, glances back warily as he leads a younger, fair-haired child through a pale, wintry wood — every inch of the ground around them swarming with toads. The subdued, watercolor-like palette gives the scene an eerie fairy-tale stillness that suits the "Tim Hunter: The Legend Begins" banner perfectly. If you've been following this 1999 run, this issue promises the kind of atmospheric, myth-soaked storytelling that has made Books of Magic a standout corner of the DC/Vertigo universe.