Book Cover of the Month: September

I love this cover. It reminds me of the works of the famous surrealist Salvador Dali. The author, Beth Hetland, illustrated the graphic novel as well as the cover. This is her first release from a major publisher, Fantagraphics.

Hetland is a Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches several comics and comics adjacent courses. She holds an MFA (2011) from The Center for Cartoon Studies and BFA (2009) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at comics fests all over the country, and received several awards for both teaching and comics.

The illustrations were drawn digitally using Procreate on an iPad and with the Apple Pencil. Hetland learned how to draw digitally from her students. She saw them all using an iPad in class and asked a lot of questions on technique. Previously, her illustrations were done with pen and pencil.