Fasole's "Cyperpunk Samurai"

Snow Crash fanart by Fasole (paradanmellow). Click thumbnail to view larger image in artist's gallery. Finally, a quality Hiro portrait that actually respects the author's character description. ;-) (Snow Crash is a cyperpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. The protagonist is of African American and Korean descent.)

Has anyone noticed that most of the official Snow Crash covers with Hiro on them show either a silhouette or back view? And the few covers that have Hiro in profile or three-quarter view portray him with Caucasian features. One Hiro illustration, which made it into Spectrum some years ago,  didn't even get the hair right. (That particular illustrator portrayed Hiro as someone with white skin, European features and lank hair.)

This isn't an issue unique to Snow Crash covers. Another example is the treatment of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books. As the author herself describes in Slate article A Whitewashed Earthsea, publishers seem to go out of their way to avoid showing non-white faces on book covers, out of fear that doing so might hurt sales.

Occult Crimes Taskforce graphic novel

In Occult Crimes Taskforce (O.C.T.), New York policewoman Sophia Ortiz (modeled after co-writer Rosario Dawson) and her teammates fight supernatural criminals with their own magical arts. Artwork by Tony Shasteen. Co-written by Rosario Dawson and David Atchinson.

Sanjay Patel's "Ramayana: Divine Loophole"

Sanjay Patel's retelling of the Hindu epic Ramayana contains more than a hundred illustrations. Click thumbnails to visit Divine Loophole gallery on artist's site:

Todd Lockwood's cover art for the Dark Elf Trilogy

Mass market paperback covers for the Homeland , Exile and Sojourn. Click on thumbnails to view full size images on artist's site:

Homeland

Exile

Sojourn

Haroon Rashid's Burka Avenger

In this animated series conceptualized by pop star Haroon Rashid, the superhero battles corrupt politicians and misogynistic extremists in a fictional Pakistani city.

Jia teaches at a girl's school by day and fights injustice as a burqa-wearing action heroine by night.

More about Burka Avenger:

• Burka Avenger: Pakistan's cartoon superhero battling for girls' education (TheGuardian.com)
• Burka Avenger, Pakistan's Newest Female Superhero, Set To Debut In GeoTV Cartoon Series In August (HuffingtonPost.com)

Claire Hummel's "Pele" and "Hatshepsut"

Paul Davey's "Wild Remote" and "Thieves in the Night"

Click on thumbnails to view images in illustrator's deviantart gallery.

Yasuhiro Imagawa's "Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still"

Giant Robo assists
the warriors of Mount Liang

This retro-futuristic anime, inspired by Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga of the same title, is set largely in a 2039 China that is simultaneously medieval, modern, and futuristic, where dirigibles, skyscrapers and trains co-exist with Taoist sorcerers and warriors on horseback.

A Japanese child Daisaku Kusama, recruited into the International Police Organization for his unique ability to command a powerful robot, goes to China to support the Beijing/Peking branch of the IPO. There he meets a colorful team of colleagues, many of them based on well-known characters from the Chinese classical novels Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh).

John Jude Palencar's cover art for Octavia Butler's Patternist series

Mass market paperback covers:

Wild Seed (1999) and Mind of my Mind (1994). (click thumbnails to view larger images on on artist's site)

Clay's Ark (1996) and Patternmaster (1995), Click thumbnails to view larger images on on ifsdb.com.

Michel Ocelot's "Azur & Asmar: The Princes' Quest"

In this animated feature directed by Michel Ocelot, a sojourning Saracen widow is employed as a nanny by a European nobleman. The widow Jenane treats her young charge Azur with the same love that she gives her biological son, Asmar. Both boys grow up listening to Jenane sing about the Djinn Fairy who awaits a rescuer to break her curse.

The two boys are close as brothers until Azur's father, annoyed by the rough horseplay between the children, and uncomfortable with the bilingual upbringing that Azur is receiving from Jenane,  expels the nanny and her son.

Leo and Diane Dillon's African American folkltale illustrations

Three illustrations from supernatural tales in Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales, a beautifully illustrated collection of stories:

Click on thumbnail to visit "The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon" blog for a larger view of these illustrations and other fantastical illustrations from the same book.

Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo's "Trese"

Trese is a graphic novel series by writer Budjette Tan and artist Kajo Baldisimo. Contemporary crime intersects with supernatural world in present day Manila, where mythical creatures of Filipino folklore, such as the dreaded aswang,  manifest in modern forms.

When the police are stumped by mysteries of preternatural cause, they rely on Alexandra Trese, a private investigator with unique connections to the Underworld...

Click thumbnail to visit the official Trese blog. For more information, see Trese on Wikipedia.

Suggested by jnguyễn.