Buckingham, Mark - Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham, issue 6, cover (Mar 2016)

This is Mark Buckingham's cover to Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham (2015 series) #6, cover-dated March 2016, part of Book Four: The Golden Age, containing the story "Carnival." This issue reprinted the original Miracleman #22, the "Carnival" chapter — the culminating story of The Golden Age, in which all the previously spotlighted 'ordinary people' characters converge on London in 1994 for a remembrance ceremony celebrating Miracleman's new world. 

The single gold Miracleman balloon hovering above the cluster of plain colored ones captures the relationship between humanity and Miracleman in this new world: the living god elevated above the humanity that gathers below, present but at a reverent distance. The lone human fist gripping the ballon cord likely represents the fragile hold onto something miraculous that constantly threatens to drift beyond mortal reach. It visualizes the book's central question of whether there is still a place for ordinary humanity in a world remade by gods.

This stunning cover was acquired via Joseph Melchior at BritComicsArt.com. Thank you, Joseph!