Karl was one of the earliest artists featured in Marvel Age's "New Talent Department" spotlight, and gets some constructive criticism in technique by veteran inker Joe Rubinstein:
from Marvel Age #9 (Marvel, December 1983)
"I'm sure he'll be inking for Marvel before you know it," says Rubinstein. Well...no! Because soon he was inking for DC! As far as I can tell his first work for them was in the aptly-named New Talent Showcase, which provided us with this short bio of KK:
from New Talent Showcase (1984 series) #5 (DC, May 1984)
And because I always try to balance out using an artist's "New Talent" artwork with later, more experienced work, here's a Karl inking scene I especially like from the much more recent (and a personal favorite of mine) Future Quest:
from "Mine-Crash!" in Future Quest #3 (DC/Hanna-Barbera, September 2016), script by Jeff Parker, pencils by Aaron Lopresti, inks by Karl Kesel, colors by Hi-Fi, letters by Dave Lanphear
Karl's one of the co-founders of the short-lived but much-missed Gorilla Comics imprint from Image Comics, for which he co-created Section Zero:
from Section Zero (2000 series) #2 (Image/Gorilla, July 2000)
He's also co-created the recent, super-fun Impossible Jones! (highly recommended!):
from Impossible Jones! v.1 (Panic Button Press, November 2020)
Kesel was such a huge part of the Superman line of books in the 1990s that Clark 'n' Lois invited him to their wedding! I hope he didn't try to ink them.
from Superman: The Wedding Album one-shot (DC, December 1996), pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Jerry Ordway, colors by Glenn Whitmore, letters by Bill Oakley
Click top picture to honeymoon-size
Happy birthday, Karl Kesel!
Impossible Jones is super-fun indeed and the new Section Zero stuff ain't bad either.
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