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)

The 1963 Batmobile is shown in this photo released by Heritage Auctions, HA.com December 5, 2014. The earliest known officially licensed car of comic book superhero Batman is up for auction on Saturday. The 1963 Batmobile is believed to be the first custom car to be licensed as Batman's swanky ride and could fetch up to $500,000, according to officials with Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. The opening bid is $90,000. (Photo by Reuters/Heritage Auctions)

A staff member feeds a rabbit at the Bunny Style Hotel in Hong Kong, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. With the lifting of COVID restrictions, Hong Kongers are traveling again and some of those who keep rabbits at pets are booking them into a rabbit resort where they are fed, exercised and pampered with spa treatments. The Lunar New Year of the Rabbit is shining a particular spotlight on the popularity of the animals in the crowded city of tiny apartments. (Photo by Anthony Kwan/AP Photo)

Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)

Lasha Pataraia pulls a truck, which weighs 8,250kg (8 tons), with his ear during an event to break the Guinness Book of World Records in Rustavi, outside Tbilisi November 29, 2012. The 32-year-old broke a Guinness record after he managed to pull the truck with his ear for 21,50 metres (70.5 feet), according to organisers. (Photo by Irakli Gedenidze/Reuters)

Afghans shout anti-U.S. slogans as they burn tires and block a highway during a protest in reaction to a small American church's plan to burn copies of the Quran, at Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, September 10, 2010. Religious and political leaders across the Muslim world welcomed a decision by the church to suspend its plans to torch copies of their holy book but some said Friday the damage has already been done. (Photo by Rahmat Gul/AP Photo)

A grasshopper in a protective mask created by microminiaturist Anatoly Konenko in Omsk, Russia on May 21, 2020. Mini-masks about the size of a rice grain are made of a special high-density medical fabric with a built-in air filter. Anatoly Konenko is one of Russia's most famous microminiaturists; his works include a grasshopper playing a violin, a shod flea, a miniature bass guitar, a camel train in a needle's eye, and over 200 miniature books. (Photo by Yevgeny Sofiychuk/TASS)

In this photo released by the Alaska National Guard, Alaska Army National Guard soldiers use a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to removed an abandoned bus, popularized by the book and movie “Into the Wild”, out of its location in the Alaska backcountry Thursday, June 18, 2020, as part of a training mission. Alaska Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige, in a release, said the bus will be kept in a secure location while her department weighs various options for what to do with it. (Photo by Sgt. Seth LaCount/Alaska National Guard via AP Photo)