Check out the comic book shelf in the background of a scene from The Dark Knights Returns Part 1:
Top shelf (from left to right) appears to be:
- Swamp Thing Volume 8 Trade Paperback "Spontaneous Generation"
- Sandman #1
- V For Vendetta Trade Paperback
Bottom shelf (again, from left to right):
- Crisis on Infinite Earths #1
- Watchmen #1
All are from DC Comics or DC/Vertigo, considered innovative and were popular around the same time (more or less) as when the Dark Knight Returns comic came out.