Benjamin Dewey

We're currently in the midst of our Fantasy Week, and there's no greater fantasy tale than JRR Tolkein's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. The series --- which was later adapted by Peter Jackson as one of the most critically acclaimed genre franchises of all time --- helped define Western interpretations of the genre as a whole and even people who don't care for fantasy probably have some positive feelings about Lord of the Rings. Comic books have a long history with the genre and we've assembled a list of five of the best independent fantasy comics for you to check out if you're a fan of the genre. Love that? Try this!

Kurt Busiek and Benjamin Dewey's Autumnlands is set in a fantasy world that may or may not be the far-off future. Magic is dying, and the humanoid animal members of a highly hierarchical society devise a last-minute plan to bring the savior and progenitor of their world to their present day.

Iron Circus Comics, the publisher of, among other things, Smut Peddler, is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for another anthology called New World. New World is a fantasy/sci-fi anthology about what happens when cultures meet. The campaign is more than 200% funded, but there are still some great rewards for backers who may find this topic intriguing, and higher totals for the campaign can lead to bonuses for the creative teams. As the campaign winds down, Iron Circus has provided ComicsAlliance with this exclusive preview of the first 10 pages of the story "Hosts," by Sophie Goldstein and Carl Antonowicz.

Having been one of the creators who saved superhero comics in the 1990s, it can be difficult to think of Kurt Busiek as anything other than a superhero comic writer. But between all of his high-profile runs on big Marvel and DC books and undisputed classics Marvels and Astro City, Busiek has frequently played in the fantasy genre with great results. If you've never read The Wizard's Tale, Arrowsmith, or his run on Conan, you've been missing out on an aspect of Busiek's all-world talent that shouldn't be overlooked, and it's time to getcha life right. Created by Busiek and Benjamin Dewey (I Was The Cat), Tooth & Claw is a fantasy about the end of magic, a mythical hero, and a dog-boy named Dunstan. And somehow, given all those words I just typed, it's also a dark Mature Readers comic about the suddenness and finality of death.

In the pages of Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey's I Was The Cat -- a new graphic novel serialized weekly on ComiXology -- a young journalist is hired to ghostwrite the memoirs of an eccentric billionaire named Burma. The trouble, as you may have already guessed from the title, is that Burma is a cat -- specifically, a talking cat who has spent his last eight lives attempting to conquer the world. It's a great premise, but what Tobin and Dewey are doing in their story is interesting not just for bizarre feline histories, but for how dark and sinister a fluffy kitty who spends most of his time on-panel being petted by the other lead characters can actually be. To find out more, we spoke to Tobin about the origins of the story, why you don't have to like cats to enjoy it, and the amount of research that he thinks a writer should be doing in order to create a proper history.

Where some conventions skew more toward pop culture than comic books, this past weekend's Emerald City Comicon 2013 stocked Seattle with hundreds of prominent creators from every corner of the medium. ComicsAlliance was on hand to catch the faces behind the funnybooks as they met fans, signed comics and worked on commissions...

Created by former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica writer Jane Espenson and actor Brad Bell, Husbands is a live-action internet sitcom that stars Bell and Sean Hemeon as gay celebrity couple Cheeks and Brady, a scandal-prone actor and a recently self-outed athlete who were married under particularly drunken circumstances, but who are determined to make it work or else risk hurting

Portland-based illustrator Benjamin Dewey has laid down lines in Conan and Star Wars books before, so we don't need to tell you that he really knows how to get his art on when it comes to strange worlds and detailed landscapes. As the co-creator of the fantasy webcomic Tales from the White Pony, he has also produced a swelling ongoing tale of troll and gnome action that's worth your attention... R