The Sandman: Endless Nights

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is held up by a lot of people to be the greatest example of comics as literature ever written. I don't know if that's quite accurate, but it does show a lot of what comics are capable of as literature.

That being said, this book specifically is Gaiman revisiting his Endless series 10 years after it finished, providing defining moments in their own personal history, and many of which provide glimpses of who the Endless are and why they occupy the roles that they do. As such, Delirium's story is kind of confusing, Despair's is difficult to read through in one setting because it's just that sad, and so on. Gaiman's poetic prose really makes the art come to life.

Speaking of the art, there's some amazing work going on here. Manara, Quitely, Sienkowitz, McKean - a veritable treasure trove of art, each one selected for the story that would work best for them. Beautiful, rich - I could go on with many other, more superlative adjectives, but the point is clear.