Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.47: Michael William Kaluta

 No.47: Michael William Kaluta

One of the key artists of the Bronze Age, Mike Kaluta brought an elegant, elaborate baroque that brought back retro-pulp stylings to the medium, but with greater sophistication. Associated in the mid to late 1970s with The Studio (a group of young top-level artists that included Barry Smith, Jeff Jones and Bernie Wrightson) Kaluta, who like his colleagues was influenced by Ingels and Frazetta, brought a style that has remained a touchstone of that era’s fantasy and horror. Words: Andrew Colman

photo©Joel Meadows

Getting his start at DC at the beginning of the 1970s, Kaluta cut his teeth on various projects before working on DC’s horror covers for titles such as House of Mystery and House of Secrets, along with co-creating horror host Eve for Secrets of Sinister House. It was clear that his wonderfully atmospheric work fitted the gothic style of these titles, and he would continue to draw many covers for such books, including Phantom Stranger, Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion, Weird Worlds, Doorway to Nightmare as well as Batman, Batman Family and Detective Comics – although never a superhero artist, his filmic, detailed illustrations suited the Dark Knight.

The work he is best remembered for in this period is the five issues of The Shadow with writer Denny O’Neil. This celebrated series resurrected a pre-Batman character who had begun in the pulps before moving into comics in the 1940s and 50s. Kaluta’s painstaking work strikingly evoked the New York of the 1930s, replete with realistic, hardboiled characters lifted from film noir, and was a brilliant effort that has remained a perennial fan favourite.

After this Kaluta drew the Madame Xanadu one-shot, and then moved onto the surreal science-fiction series Starstruck with writer Elaine Lee for Marvel, Heavy Metal and then Epic Comics. This satirical, multi-faceted work was Kaluta’s main focus thereon, with the artist and Lee returning to the project periodically, and was another tremendous effort from him. Kaluta also revisited the Shadow on more than one occasion, as well as drawing covers for Vertigo, which is more than apt considering that he may well be the most influential artist for that imprint, with many Sandman pencillers owing him a significant debt. Recently he drew a Madame Xanadu story arc with Matt Wagner and has just finished covers for DC’s rebranded Sandman library. One of the great fantasy illustrators, Kaluta has remained one of the best artists in the field both within and outside the comics industry.

Here’s links through to the other entries in our 101 Greatest so far as well

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.48: Cary Nord

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.49: Frank Quitely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.50: Mike Ploog

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.51: Johnny Craig

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.52: Darwyn Cooke

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.53: Steve Dillon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.54: Gil Kane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.55: Michael Zulli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.56: John Romita

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.57: Joe Maneely

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.58: Marshall Rogers

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.59: John Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.60: Alex Toth

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.61: Brian Bolland

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.62: David Mazzuchelli

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.63 Reed Crandall

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.64 Harry Anderson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.65 Nick Cardy

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.66 Matt Wagner

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.67 Bryan Hitch

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.68 Shawn Martinbrough

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.69 Al Feldstein

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.70 Nestor Redondo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.71 Tarpe Mills

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.72 Eduardo Risso

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.73 JH Williams III

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.74 Irv Novick

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.75 Dan Zolnerowich

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.76 Gilbert Shelton

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.77 Tommy Lee Edwards

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.78: Sean Phillips

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.79: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.80: Dan DeCarlo

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.81: Marie Severin

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.82: John Paul Leon

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.83: Jim Lee

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.84: Denys Cowan

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.85: Ross Andru

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.86: Paul Gustavson

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.87: George Evans

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.88: Michael Golden

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.89: Matt Baker

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.90: Todd McFarlane

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.91: Fiona Staples

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.92: Carl Barks

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.93: Carmine Infantino

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.94: Alan Davis

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.95: CC Beck

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.96: Syd Shores

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.97: Bob Fujitani

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.98: Tim Sale

Tripwire’s 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time: No.99: Jim Aparo

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