Artist spotlight : Round 3

Greetings Barragers!

These are kinda the most fun posts to make. Best part of collecting is finding a piece of work you didn't know existed, esp if it's one of your favorite artists. What's even better is collecting art of these people then meeting them in person. An excellent example was Lisa Wood, more so when I saw some of her social media posts randomly. She just seems like a person who enjoys life. Now take that and Willy Wonka it, you find there's the flip side where meeting the artist is a real Debbie downer moment. Prime example, Art Adams was less than warm, but gotta love his work as an OG. Many others touting an experience level somewhere between these two. :)

Layout for each, to include:

About the artist / Totes gotta add photos of these people moving forward....
My brief thoughts / additional insight
Art samples

The first comic I list for each artist will be the cover/art work that first drew my attention to them. I have such a deep respect for the talent these people have. Remember I only got back into comics again a few years back so this first issue may not be their oldest, first or best work. Simply how I came to follow them.

Artists to be covered this round:

Tula Lotay
Whilce Portacio
Nogi San

TULA LOTAY ***

So Tula is a prime example of why images will now be included with these artist spotlights... I was under the impression that men dominated the cover artist market and thus thought "Tula" was an 'ethnic' males name...

"In the entertainment and advertising industries, "ethnic male" is often used as industry shorthand or casting terminology to describe men of color (e.g., Black, Asian, Hispanic/Latino, or Middle Eastern descent)."

So boom, it's a legit descriptive :) When I first met Ms. Woods I tried to explain my naming convention prejudice via the above term. Afterwards I was like, I must have sounded pretty dumb... but boom again, it works.. lol. For those of you that don't know Tula Lotay is the pen name taken by Lisa. For the sake of y'all being more informed than myself, her friends came up with the name for her kinda on a whim, given I asked her this. Funny enough she led with "not a very exciting story" but I feel origin stories can be grand or small, to me they're all interesting. She took a pen name believing there are a million Lisa Woods out there, thus she created something unique.

So I did a quick check with the google overlords:

" The combination of the first name "Lisa" and the last name "Woods" makes for a very rare full name globally. While "Lisa" was incredibly popular in past decades, "Woods" is a widely common surname, but the two are rarely grouped together to represent a single, well-known global figure".

Whatever the case, personal belief or factual detail, she was 100% very sweet and had a good vibe about her. I got into 'his' work randomly but it was her Black Widow cover that got my initial attention.

All that said beware of her Faithless and Somna titles.. Oo Deff not kid friendly stuff. Somna was her first book as a DSTLRY founding member.

WHILCE PORTACIO ***

This is one of those happily unaware cases where an artist work is taken completely for granted. The awesome part about becoming freshly attuned to an OG artist is... you get to go back and find all their work! What's funny is I have like the first 10 issues of Wetworks Vol.1 from back in the day and never knew the creator. It just so happened I as digging in a dollar box at a flea market I found his Punisher #7 1:15 incentive. I had no idea who he was then but was like 'dude this cover is sic'. Thus began my education into more of his work.

"Whilce Portacio is a highly acclaimed Filipino-American comic book writer and artist. Portacio started out as an inker at Marvel Comics in 1985. Best known for his iconic work on Marvel's The Punisher, X-Factor, and Uncanny X-Men, he co-created the beloved X-Men mutant Bishop. He is also one of the original co-founders of Image Comics."

2000: Survived a near-fatal diabetic coma that left him unable to walk or draw.

Crazy we almost lost this talent. Def a sleeper artist who's still putting out covers. So crazy I was blissfully ignorant to his work for so long. No Longer!! GL finding that Spawn 185 B&W var :)

NOGI SAN ***

To begin lets start with a little cultural insight:

"Adding "-san" to a name in Japanese is a polite honorific (like saying "Mr.", "Ms.", or "Mrs."). It signifies respect and polite distance. You use it to address equals, people you don't know well, or individuals to show professional courtesy, as using a name alone is often considered rude."

Nogi San is a French-Japanese illustrator and comic book cover artist based in California, recognized for her Japanese-inspired aesthetic. She frequently blends traditional Japanese sumi-e inking techniques with digital art.

She's done work for Ubisoft, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and in 2025, she began working as a cover artist for Marvel. Why you're only seeing her work more recently.

The first piece to grab my attention was this SpiderGwen jump shot, that made me notice the spider girl cover and I've had her name on my artist hunted list since. The one I don't have atm is that sweet Magic incentive but it's like the hot one ATM that's taken off and I think Nogi San is going to be one to watch for sure.

I mean look at how long she's been putting out covers and already has quite a nice spread that any collector could appreciate. I like the variety thus far, I mean she's got like 12 covers total and like 7 of them are 1:25's+ :)

FYI, I thought Nogi was a dude name too.. again why I added the images... Oo

I didn't add specific keys or certain covers to go collect given it's really up to you and what you're hunting. I think an artists work speaks for itself, so decide for yourself what you like. There are just so many artists out there and I hope to introduce you to at least one new favorite. :) If theirs a banger by an artist, know that it will be included as one of their samples images, kinda like that black and white spawn cover.....

Anyway, I wish you all well and happy hunting where ever you call home.

God Bless,

DD