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)

A chimpanzee feeding a leopard cub at Southam Park Zoo, Warwickshire. (Photo by Ian Tyas/Keystone Features/Getty Images). 1971

Linda Rooks from Yeovil in Somerset, a hostess at Whipsnade Zoo, wears “Tanga” a 7fy long python as a hat and scarf. (Photo by William Vanderson/Getty Images). 1965

Old Heidelberg, Dog with Pipe, 1905. (Photo by Detroit Publishing Company)

Australian comedian Barry Humphries, dressed as his most famous character Dame Edna Everage, modelling a stunning Ascot hat based on the Sydney Opera House on June 15, 1976. (Photo by Wesley/Getty Images)

Judy, a black collie whose owner was killed by a train when trying to retrieve her after she slipped her lead. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images). 17th December 1976

A two-horse team street cleaner, with sprayer, squeegee, and roller at rear. New York, between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915. (Photo by NYC Municipal Archives)

Mary Pickford takes a picture of husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who is executing a handstand on the roof of a building on December 19, 1920. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)