Dean relocated in New York City in 1990 where he served as art director and senior designer for Byron Preiss Visual Publications (for whom he also edited a line of
Philip Marlowe graphic novels.) In 1993, he joined the staff at
DC Comics where he oversaw the corporate and licensing designs for many of their characters. He returned to the freelance community in 1997, retaining his previous employers among his most active clients. Motter's acclaimed Vertigo mini-series
Terminal City and its sequel
Terminal City: Aerial Graffiti (both illustrated by
Michael Lark) were nominated for a number of
Eisner and
Harvey Awards during their 1996–1998 run. His artwork has been featured in many comic book publications, notably the
Classics Illustrated adaptation of
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
Batman: Black & White,
Grendel: Red, White and Black,
John Constantine: Hellblazer and
9-11: Artists Respond as well as the ''Superman's First Flight'' children's book for Scholastic. He has written stories for
Superman Adventures,
Star Wars Tales, ''Will Eisner's The Spirit
, and Wolverine''. In 2001 Dean re-united with Michael Lark to create the award-winning
Batman: Nine Lives graphic novel for
DC Comics. During that time he also wrote and illustrated
Electropolis for
Image Comics. Motter has compiled and designed the retrospectives,
Echoes: The Drawings of Michael Wm. Kaluta and
The Thrilling Comic Book Cover Art of Alex Schomberg for Vanguard Productions, as well as
Mister X: The Archives (including Motter's reminiscences and newly illustrated finale) and Mister X: The Modern Age (collecting Motter's post-millennial Radiant City stories) for Dark Horse Books. He continues to write and illustrate Mister X comics for Dark Horse Comics as well as documentary comic book works for the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, the Karski Institute for Holocaust Education and the
Spyscape museum in NYC. ==Personal life==