The Spirit #12

Issue #12 of DC's The Spirit closes out Darwyn Cooke's celebrated run with a cover drenched in deep amber and crimson — the Spirit sweeping a woman into a passionate embrace on a rain-slicked city street, his fedora resting nearby as a boat idles in the moody harbor behind them. Cooke's linework, inked here by Cooke himself and colored by Dave Stewart, gives the scene the warm, cinematic glow of classic noir romance. With the story titled "Sand," this January 2008 issue promises the kind of tension between danger and desire that makes The Spirit such a compelling corner of the DC universe.