A Bacardi Show 15 cover birthday greeting.

Some of my favorite artists, I don't remember the first time I saw their work. Or, to be more accurate, I don't recall exactly when I first noticed their work. However, with Michael William Kaluta, I remember exactly- it was the cover of The Shadow #2, the first issue of DC's 1973 revival of the venerable character that I had seen on the spinner rack at the local Jr. Foods Store. I had heard of the Shadow, and had seen an ad or two in DC comics at the time; he sounded interesting. For some reason, I didn't see #1, but when #2 came out I plunked down my 20 cents to find out what the fuss was about...and got a lot more than I bargained for with my first exposure to the graceful, nuanced, 30's pulp-styled illustration work of Mr. Kaluta, and it was that first exposure that led me to be a lifelong fan. I tried to imitate it in my own crude way, me still being a 13-year-old aspiring comic book artist, but I just never really could get it right...it was just too idiosyncratic. I could draw a decent Shadow (relatively speaking), but his other characters, no. Much to my chagrin, Kaluta abruptly abandoned the Shadow's exploits with the issue that I posted above; the monthly deadlines were too much. I would see his work pop up here and there over the next few years, mostly on covers, until 1982, when he and Elaine Lee hooked up to give us the amazing Starstruck, and I fell in love with Kaluta's work all over again- this was vastly more detailed and clever than his earlier stuff; Lee gave him a whole universe to play with, and he brought it to life vividly- as those who picked up last week's Starstruck #1 from IDW are finding out. After the inevitable failure of a title that readers just weren't ready for in the 1980's, it was back to covers, mostly, for Mr. Kaluta, and almost all of them were typically intricate and often more gorgeous than the interiors of those comics deserved. Through thick and thin, I've remained a staunch fan, and have often named him as my favorite illustrator, comics or otherwise. He's had a hell of a career; I wish there had been more sequential work, but these things tend to play themselves out the way they're meant to, and I'm happy for what we've had.

Anyway, I post this because today is his 62nd birthday, and I wanted to pay tribute. I could post at least 30 more covers, there are that many that I have liked over the years; I tried to choose a mix of ones I loved as a teen with others that I have admired recently. I'm sure I've omitted a great many excellent ones. For more on Mr. K, including some pages from that second Shadow issue that galvanized me so, go here to last year's birthday post.

So happy birthday, Mr. Kaluta, good luck with Starstruck, and I hope it's been a great one.

Truth, as far as it goes.

Very good news from none other than the great Mike Kaluta- seems like IDW will be publishing longtime JBS fave Starstruck!

Here, in Mike's own words, cut-and-pasted from the Kaluta Yahoo! Group, and I hope it's ok for me to post this stuff:

...since the Agreements have arrived and been signed, I can
officially tell you that Starstruck, the Comic Book, will be
returning to the stands, in color! Whew! What a LONG haul this has
been... The painter who'll add the 6th Dimension is Lee Moyer: a big
Starstruck Scholar and fine fine painter. I'm adding about 2 inches
to every page so they'll fit the Comic Book Format (nothing much
added, though, not THERE, anyway) and there'll be New New covers and
an added page or two here and there.

To make up the 13 issues out of the material that is "finished", we
are adding the Galactic Girl Guide pages to the mix, so there'll be
about 22 pages of Real Comic Art in each book, plus The Starstruck
Glossary (always fun). The GGG work was to be a Graphic Novel for
Tundra, way back when, but never caught the Brass Ring... most of the
pages are pencilled by me and inked brilliantly by Charles Vess (the
20 pages that appeared in the back of The Rocketeer Adventure
Magazine are both pencilled and inked by me). All is written by
Elaine Lee and will also have Lee Moyer's fine hand on the added
color. The publisher is IDW.

If things go well, perhaps IDW will contract for Elaine and me to
finish the rest of the many many new pages...

And about the above page sample in particular:

The Starstruck Material will be basically the pages that appeared in
the Dark Horse "Expanding Universe" issues, with a few bits and
pieces tweaked for story purposes and, as I said, maybe a new linking
page when one of the longer stories gets cut in half. It'll be the
addition of The Galactic Girl Guides material that'll be new to most
everyone, and Lee Moyer's brilliant color. Here's just a taste of
what that man is capable of: a page done some years ago when last
time there seemed to be someone ready to print Starstruck in color...

Anyway, something to look forward to, and I especially hope it leads to the long-awaited resolution (or at least conclusion of sorts) to the whole thing...

A Bacardi Show Birthday Greeting is in order for illustrator extraordinaire Michael William Kaluta, who turns 61 years young today.

I've used this forum to opine and spotlight a great many artists in the last (almost) six years, but of all of them, Kaluta may just be my favorite. From the first time I saw his artwork, in DC's The Shadow #2, on through his multitudes of wonderful covers and illustrations, through Starstruck and other works, I have always made it a point to pick it up and never cease to marvel at his graceful style, highly redolent of the great pulp magazine-era illustrators and even farther back than that. It has wit, style, and sexiness, and his design sense is flawless. Of course, even the greats falter from time to time, and for sure he's done figures that didn't quite work or compositions that didn't come together as well as you'd hope...but they've been few and far between.

Here's one of a multitude of pages from Starstruck that blew me away; click to see it bigger. It's a conference-call type conversation between several of the characters, that takes place about midway through the first graphic novel. Notice the varied facial expressions, as well as the details around the edges of each panel, which help clue the reader in on who's speaking to whom:



Also, here are four pages from the 1973 Shadow I mentioned earlier, and the one which certainly grabbed my attention and made me a fan. SPOILERS, if you haven't read this issue! Even though this is early on in his career, there is so much going on in these pages, as the Shadow pursues and eventually puts paid to the killer that was hiding as part of a circus- the atmospheric, moody black night sky, with tiny pinpoints for stars (and for once the crappy 70's coloring doesn't really hurt all that much), the train, which evokes a lot of nostalgia, Hank Williams, all that- it's as if Hank did the music for a 40's noir- and perched incongruously behind the locomotive engine is a giant whale, providing humor. The standoff scenes have real tension, and combined with Denny O'Neil's terse dialogue, the merciless nature of the Shadow here is underlined perfectly. This stuff hit me so hard when I was 13, and I have yet to recover; I didn't know it until a couple of years later, but this looks like it could have been taken straight from the Pulps. Obviously, click the images to see them bigger (I've taken the liberty of "whitening" the page scans a bit):



One of the biggest thrills in my life was when I got to meet the man, at a Louisville toy and game convention in 2000. He was sitting there sketching when I approached, with large notebooks full of the originals of the various DC covers he'd been doing at the time for The Spectre, Books of Magic, and Aquaman. All hand colored with Dr. Martin's dyes, he said, and they were gorgeous. Of course, I couldn't afford- he was asking four figures for them- but I did spend some time browsing. He autographed my copy of the first Starstruck graphic novel, I shook his hand and tried to relate my admiration for his work (variations on which I'm sure he's heard from a thousand different people in a thousand different places)...now I've met some fairly well-known people, musicians, celebrities and such, but I was never as nervous as when I first approached this man. We made some small talk, I got my signature, and then I got the hell out of there before I became one of those people who linger long after their time has come and gone. I've had a little email correspondence with him since, here and there, and he is still every bit as gracious there as he was in 2000, but I'll never forget that meeting.

Anyway, I've gushed enough. Hope you've had a wonderful day, Mr. Kaluta. Thanks for the memories, and here's to many to come.

(Starstruck page and portrait pic ganked from the website of Todd Klein.)

One of the reasons I became such a hard core MIKE KALUTA fan as a teenager was panels like the one above, from his Shadow #4 (1973). The Shadow book was where I first saw his work, and remains among my absolute favorite of that long-gone decade. The illustrious Mr. Door Tree over at Golden Age Comic Book Stories (in this case, Silver and/or Bronze? I never can remember where these Ages begin and end...) has posted the entirety of that issue via the original color keys- notes on which kinda obscure some detail but it's more than made up by being able to see the brush strokes of the colorist (Tatjana Wood, maybe, or Glynis Wein?).

This should take you to the first post; the way he posts these things forces him to distribute several scans over several posts, so I suggest just clicking on the header above to go to the most current post and work your way down. It's worth the trouble, in my opinion anyway 'cause I'm all about the classic Kaluta artwork. And on this particular story he gets assists from Berni Wrightson, Howard Chaykin and none other than THE Steve Hickman. I kid Mr Hickman; I remember his byline here and there but he didn't really establish his name like his colleagues did, at least in my orbit.

Portrait of Mike Kaluta, by Donato Giancola. Found via the Kaluta Yahoo! Group.

Hey! This blogging stuff is contagious!

Anyway, I wanted to share this image, which was set to be the cover to Dark Horse's Starstruck: The Expanded Universe #5- which of course never saw print. It is of course by Mike Kaluta, who graciously sent it to me when I couldn't see it at the Kaluta Yahoo! Group, which you should all belong to.

He also stated in a post to the community (which he often does) that he and Elaine Lee are still interested in bringing Starstruck to a satisfactory conclusion someday, but haven't been able to find a publisher that would agree to publish/republish it the way they want it (i.e., in color).

Spawn of Frankenstein, part 3

Continuing the look back at the most obscure of the Seven Soldiers...


If you recall, last issue the Spawn of Frankenstein had decided to try and revive the man who had recently died bringing him back to life, Victor Adams. As part 3 begins, in Phantom Stranger #25, we see artist Mike Kaluta indulging himself in a little Charles Addams-by-way-of-Alberto Vargas pinup art featuring Victor's widow, Rachel. As Rachel fumes about the death of her husband, she is approached by a huge lout wearing some sort of odd Egyptian-style, or Cimmerian-style, or something clothing. The man demands that Rachel go with him, and Rachel refuses.


Then, of course, the big lout (name of "Mammon", by the way) takes Mrs. A by force, like any loutish flunky worth his salt is wont to do. Meanwhile...


Later that evening, Spawny digs Victor up and carries him off, looking for somewhere to stash his body and begin the restoration process. As fate would have it...


...he comes upon the very same menacing-looking towered structure to which Mammon has carried Rachel, in order to truss her up on a big wooden cross and be used as a sacrifice which will open a gate to Hell so that Mammon's master, a shriveled-up little bald fella named Mordecai, can be reunited with his master Satan.


As the ritual proceeds, Spawny arrives just in time to break it up, free Mrs. A and brawl with Mammon. The Mam man gets in a lucky punch or two, and knocks our "hero" out. Mordy decides that the only way they can ensure that the SoF doesn't interrupt the proceedings again is to sacrifice him instead of the woman. Problem is...


Spawny's not down with that plan at all, and breaks free- slugging Mammon with a hunka hunka burning wood. Mordecai, for his part, is lying in the pentagram on the floor, and is "almost there", and Mammon, again like any good lackey, offers to throw himself into the hellfire that has magically sprung up, to complete the ritual. Of course, the big dumbass jumps in too late, and they both get burned to ashes for their trouble.


Spawny takes Rachel downstairs, and parks her passed-out body in the same room as Victor's corpse, much to her displeasure when she revives. The SoF, in the meantime, leaves to get the necessary equipment to perform her hubby's resurrection.

Which we never get to see, because next issue is the crossover with the Phantom Stranger, then a new creative team assumes the reins in #'s 27-30, conveniently ignoring the "Resurrection of Victor Adams" plot. Not exactly up there with Buckaroo Banzai vs. the World Crime League when it comes to unresolved storylines, but hey. Wolfman's writing is as overwrought as ever, but actually I kinda liked the idea behind this one; it has a very strong pulp magazine flavor. I never realized until many years later how inconsistent the coloring was in comics in those pre-Photoshop days...last issue Spawny had a dark blue cape and brown pants, in this issue he has on blue pants and a purple cape. He lost his hat somewhere down the line. His skin color so far has fluctuated from yellow-blue to blue to yellow to, in this chapter, green. Oy. Kaluta, for the most part, doesn't seem to be trying very hard either but it was still early in his career. If I recall correctly, he was beginning to do the Shadow at about this time as well, and was probably rushing through this anyway.

Next up, Phantom Stranger #26 and the big crossover teamup! And lots of scans, so it will be this weekend sometime. Stay tuned. All images © DC Comics.

Spawn of Frankenstein, part 2

PART TWO! from Phantom Stranger 24, Mar.-Apr. 1973, by Marvin Wolfman and Michael Wm. Kaluta.



The second chapter opens with Dr. Thirteen and Rachel swearing vengeance on the monster, who they blame for the death of their friend and husband, Victor. Unbeknownst to them, the object of their hatred is nearby and is eavesdropping. He also overhears another conversation, between the gravediggers:






Even though the monster hates this man for bringing him back to life, he has no desire to see his grave and body desecrated. He plans to deal with them, but first he needs clothes, because let's face it- an eight foot tall bluish-green skinned naked man is a bit conspicuous, but perhaps a clothed eight foot tall bluish-green skinned will be a bit less so. Anyway, later that evening he breaks into an Army-Navy surplus store, and while he's rummaging around looking for something that fits him, he is interrupted by a couple of policemen who happened to be driving by and heard the noise.



Needless to say, they get the worst of the encounter.

The monster heads back to the cemetery now, all decked out in a stylin' Zorro hat, khakis, and a black cape, but no shirt. He makes short work of the grave robbers-



So much for you, "Gink"-and then Spawny gets an idea: if Victor can bring him back from the dead, then why can't he bring back Victor using the same technology that his original creator used?



Next issue in two months!

But fear not- you won't have to wait that long. I'll try to get it scanned and posted later tonight. All images © DC Comics; all are scanned from my personal collection.

Spawn of Frankenstein, part 1

I'm sure most of you are familiar with many of the major players in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers event; Klarion the Witchboy has made several past appearances, as has the Guardian in whatever incarnation, and I dare say that there are very few comics fans alive that aren't aware of Our Lady of the Fishnet Stockings and Top Hat, Zatanna. One player you may not be all that familar with, however, is the Spawn of Frankenstein. Now, I know, who hasn't heard of the Frankenstein Monster, one of the oldest and most durable fictional characters ever? Well, not too many people, that's for sure. But I'm thinking that not too many people are all that familiar with DC's version of the Monster, which appeared as a back feature in eight issues of the Phantom Stranger comic back in 1972-1974. As the Comics Code relaxed, both Marvel and DC went monster-happy in the early 70's; there were very few of the classic archetypal monsters (and other, less derivative beasties) that both companies didn't rethink and present in updated form. DC had been featuring horror and supernatural stories in its anthology comics like House of Mystery and House of Secrets since the late 60s; they had been publishing the adventures of a character first introduced in a short-lived title, the Phantom Stranger. Another character that had been appearing here and there, and was eventually worked into the Stranger's comic as a supporting character, back-feature and foil was Dr. Terrence Thirteen, a professional skeptic and debunker who was totally convinced the Stranger was a fraud and a charlatan, and was determined to expose him as such. This went on and off and on for the first twenty-odd issues, but writer Len Wein had seemed to grow a bit tired of the cat-and-mouse game, because Dr. Thirteen found himself a non-participant in the big "Stranger vs. the Dark Circle" arc that had begun sometime around issue 19 or so. After a couple of non-PS related Dr. Thirteen backup stories, it was decided that with issue 23, the Stranger would get a new backup feature, with an all-new character of sorts:



What I hope to do is provide an overview, with scans, of the first four Spawn of Frankenstein appearances, from Phantom Stranger #'s 23 through 26. There were four more SoF stories, in issues 27 through 30, by a different creative team which I don't own. The first three were written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Mike Kaluta, the next one, a crossover event with the Stranger and the Monster, was written by Wein and illustrated by PS's regular artist at the time, Jim Aparo with a Kaluta cover. The last four stories were written by Aquaman and Hawk and the Dove (among others) scripter Steve Skeates and illustrated by Bernard Baily, the artist and writer of the Golden Age Spectre in what surely must have been his last work in comics, because his skills had eroded significantly- and the last story arc suffered because of it.

In the first appearance, in Phantom Stranger 23, we are taken to the Arctic and introduced to someone named "Victor", no last name given, who makes the discovery he's searched for for five years- the frozen body, preserved in a block of ice, of the Frankenstein Monster. In the caption, we are informed that this is August 6, 1972, so we know right off the bat that this is taking place in the modern day. When Victor returns to the university where he works, where he confronts a review board about his experiments in the duplication of cellular structure, and presents his discovery. The Board doesn't see how his ambition to revive the monster coincides with his cloning experiments, forbids him to continue, and Victor quits in a huff.



He goes home to his wife Rachael, angry at the pigheadedness of the University suits, and informs her that he's going to the lab despite her pleas to stay home tonight. Frightened, Rachael phones the one person she believes will listen to her story and be able to speak to Victor- Dr. Terry Thirteen. Dr. Thirteen and his wife Marie agree to travel to Victor's lab, in a "crumbling manor", and talk to him. When they arrive, they're unsure where Victor's lab is- Rachael has never been there, even though she knows where it's located- so they decide to split up and look for him. Victor, unaware of the new arrivals, continues with his experiment, and bombards the creature's body with "modified laser beams" to bing him to life 70's style. Problem is, Vic needs more power, and as it occurs to him to harness the lightning from the convenient thunderstorm outside, lightning obliges and strikes a lightning rod on the roof, sending a power surge into his laser cannon, which causes it to overload- electrocuting Victor and jumpstarting the monster enough to enable him to sit up and break his bonds. And it's at that precise moment that Marie Thirteen enters Victor's lab.



Victor's dead body, slumped over the laser cannon, causes it to swing over and zap Marie. The Monster sees her pain, leaps off the table, hits the cannon and causes it to shut off. It's at this time that Doc Thirteen and Rachael, hearing the commotion, find Victor's lab and see the Monster standing over Marie's body. Dr. Thirteen, erroneously assumes (as he so often did) that Franky has harmed his wife and attacks him with a steel bar. Rachael, for her part, assumes the Monster has killed her husband.



Even though Dr. T is whaling away on him with that rod, Franky looks up, sees the ceiling is collapsing, picks up a steel grate, and holds the ceiling up until the Thirteens and Rachael can get away.



Dr. Thirteen, ever the stick, vows vengeance on the creature he believes responsible for the death of his friend and the injury to his wife, who is now in a coma. And so, we're off! Next issue: the SoF goes clothes shopping! I'm not kidding!

All in all, a not-bad opening chapter despite Wolfman's often florid prose (in all fairness, this was the style the Stranger was written in as well, and Wolfman went on to take the same approach in his run on Tomb of Dracula) and some classic comic-book science. Kaluta's art was kinda rough in places, as this was still early in his career, but he was proving as suited for gothic stories as we was the sci-fi of DC's Burroughs books of the time where he first got noticed. I hope to do these as soon as possible, as fast as I can scan the panels anyway- so the plan is to get chapter two posted today. Stay tuned!

This is all ©DC Comics, by the way. Pages scanned from my personal collection.