Happy birthday to master illustrator Michael Wm. Kaluta! He rose to prominence as a comics artist in the early ‘70s, with notable runs on DC’s The Shadow (written by Dennis O’Neil) and House of Mystery (as a prolific cover artist). Kaluta joined Barry Windsor Smith, Jeffrey Catherine Jones and Bernie Wrightson in the artists’ collective The Studio in 1975. Like these kindred spirits, he went on to a career that transcended comics, working often for book publishers, record labels, and game companies.
Here are a couple of dazzling panels from the prequel “Starstruck” serial he illustrated (it was written by Elaine Lee) that ran in Heavy Metal from November 1982 through July 1983. Starstruck went on to be a Marvel graphic novel and has also been published by Epic, Dark Horse, and IDW. Kaluta was attracted to Heavy Metal in part due to his admiration of Moebius, an influence that is abundantly clear in this art.
