Cosplay fans (R) take selfies as comic book and gaming fans attend the annual Ani-Com and Games Fair in Hong Kong on July 28, 2017. Tens of thousands were expected to attend the annual event on animation, comics and games, from July 28 to August 1. (Photo by Isaac Lawrence/AFP Photo)

Naked activists take part in a protest against fur trade, called by international non profit animal rights organisation AnimaNaturalis, in Barcelona, on December 1, 2019, on the eve of the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference COP25. (Photo by Pau Barrena/AFP Photo)

Pakistani vendors carry animals in a bus for the upcoming Muslim festival Eid al-Adha in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, August 5, 2019. Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, is the most important Islamic holiday and marks the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham to Christians and Jews) to sacrifice his son. (Photo by K.M. Chaudhry/AP Photo)

Cosplayer Monzerath Gutierrez, who portrays Dragon Ball Z character Trunks, female version, poses for a portrait during the 4th edition of the MiniCon Anime convention, at the School of Dance, in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July, 26, 2015. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

A veterinarian takes a sample from a cat at an animal shelter in Yeoju, southeast of Seoul, South Korea, 01 August 2023, after cats were found to have been infected with a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza strain at shelters in Seoul on 25 and 29 July, marking the first infections of the virus in mammals since 2016. (Photo by Yonhap/EPA)

Maddie Stanton (L) and River compete in Helen Woodward Animal Center's 18th Annual Surf Dog Surf-A-Thon at Del Mar Dog Beach on September 10, 2023 in Del Mar, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Contrasted against the white flowers in a cotton field, a brown bear is out for a ramble just after midnight in the second decade of July 2023 in Kainuu, Finland, where the sun does not fully set for more than 70 days in the summer months. (Photo by Jane Jeffrey/Animal News Agency)

Los Angeles native Mike Stilkey has always been attracted to painting and drawing not only on vintage paper, record covers and book pages, but on the books themselves. Using a mix of ink, colored pencil, paint and lacquer, Stilkey depicts a melancholic and at times a whimsical cast of characters inhabiting ambiguous spaces and narratives of fantasy and fairy tales. A lingering sense of loss and longing hints at emotional depth and draws the viewer into their introspective thrall with a mixture of capricious poetry, wit, and mystery. (Photo by Mike Stilkey)