German illustrator Roman Klonek sucks you right into his topsy-turvy world of smiling cartoons and graphic woodcuts. I particularly enjoy his use of type to create images reminiscent of vintage eastern European ads.

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Theo Ellsworth makes obsessively detailed drawings and self-publishes comics, mini comics, and zines about imaginary people and places. The cosmic imagery, subtle geometry, and implied animism in his works recall the epic, heroic, and odd imagery of Jean ‘Moebius’ Girard, Mayan ruins, and the Nazca lines, filtered through the jam-packed and often psychedelic lens of underground comix from the 70s. For Imaginary Friends, at San Francisco’s GRSF Gallery, Ellsworth is making 30 pieces using pen and ink, colored pencil, and watercolor. A quarter of them will be woodcuts. According to the artist, recurring themes include but are not limited to ‘parades of monsters, people made of leaves, scaled and antlered beasts, flying machines, complicated structures, and dreams’. The show runs between July 18 and August 19.

Susan Rudat’s pen and ink Moleskin artwork rules. Her lines are remarkably precise, and have the quality of old etchings and woodcuts.