The spotlight continues to shine on artist Kyle Hotz, with a look at Mosaic, from Sirius Publishing.

This series came out in 1999.

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This past weekend, at the Gem City Comic Con, I had the pleasure of participating in (and moderating) a panel on the comics business. One of my fellow panelists was artist Kyle Hotz, whose work I’ve enjoyed for a long time. So I thought this week I’d put the spotlight on his indie comics, starting with his 2001 collaboration with writer Paul Jenking, The Agency:

This planned monthly series from Image/Top Cow sadly ended after 6 issues, but it definitely played to Hotz’s strengths: dark settings, creepy creatures, twisted people.

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I forgot to post this on Friday, but I’m currently sitting at my table at Gem City Comic Con and they have free WiFi here, so might as well take care of some business, right?

Closing out our look this week at covers of graphic novels from NBM Publishing, here’s Takashi Murakami’s Stargazing Dog:

This book is one of NBM’s best-reviewed graphic novels, and is currently on my “to read” stack. However, knowing the basic premise of the story, and as a dog owner, I’m somewhat reluctant to start, because I know it’s going to be a heartbreaking story.

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Continuing the spotlight on graphic novel covers from NBM Publishing:

This adaptation of Moby Dick is by legendary comic book creator, Will Eisner. It was published in 1998.

And heck, this is Eisner we’re talking about, so a cover isn’t just enough. Here’s an interior page for your enjoyment:

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Sorry I’ve been lax in updating the blog lately, especially the ICS feature. It’s getting down to the wire for finishing my latest book, so needless to say something had to take a back seat. But I’m going to try and get back to the M-W-F schedule of posting this feature again.

Speaking of my graphic novel, it’s currently being solicited for publication, so I thought I’d use this week to spotlight some covers from my publisher’s vast catalog of indie graphic novels. So let’s kick off NBM week with a European classic:

Created by Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt, Corto Maltese was first published in 1967. This NBM US translation is from 1987.

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And we wrap up Jim Woodring week with his cover for the anthology Prime Cuts #10:

Once again published by his long-time publisher, Fantagraphics. May 1988.

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Jim Woodring week continues:

This series featured more of Woodring’s work for publisher Fantagraphics. This issue is from may, 1996.

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This week is dedicated to the wonderfully surreal and bizarre works of Jim Woodring, starting with one of his most famous creations:

I credit my friend Matt Kish with introducing me to Woodring’s work. This particular issue is from a 4-issue limited series, published by Fantagraphics in 1996.

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Another Aircel series I’ve featured before, the fantasy series Maelstrom:

December, 1987. Art by Jim Somerville. This cover reminds me of album art for a heavy metal band (which I wouldn’t be surprised to discover was an influence behind the creation of the series).

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I featured this fantasy mini-series from Aircel a while back. here’s a look at the cover for issue #3:

Published in 1987, art by Adrian Kleinbergen.

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This week I’m revisiting one of the better known indie publishers from the 80s, Canadian based Aircel.

Dragonforce (1988) grew out of an earlier series called Dragonring, which I’ll feature here sometime soon. Like most of Aircel’s books, it was heavily influenced by Hong Kong action movies, mashed up with other genres, in this case superheroes and sci-fi. As you might have noticed by the art, this book featured some of the early work of one Dale Keown, who went on to fame as a Hulk artist, followed by his own series Pitt, and then….well, he disappeared for the most part from the comics biz. He does pop up here and there these days with an occasional variant cover for some Marvel or DC books, though.

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And here’s a final look at the fantasy series, with another cover by Peter Hsu:

This one features some characters from Hsu’s other comic, the “adults only” series Quadrant (I’ll feature that series sometime in the near future. Suffice it to say, Young Dara was disappointed to find out all the fuss was for nothing when it came to teh sex in that comic).

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