• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Appreciating and Collecting Kaluta's art and covers

Started by OveraboundingMint,

64 posts in this topic

seanfingh

seanfingh

Posted
Posted

 

He is very particular about where and how he signs. If everyone were as conscientious (and artistic) as he is with his signature, the popular belief about signatures detracting from artwork would be far less defensible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted
When did that come out? That dude leaning against the wall looks McFarlane-esque....

 

Keep in mind that Kaluta has been around since at least the early seventies. It might be more appropo to say that some McFarlane work is positively Kaluta-esque.

 

McFarlane was actually reading HoM during the early eighties and there's at least one maybe two fan letters printed in the series, HoM 300 being one. So I wouldn't be surprised if he internalized a bit of Kaluta's style and added it to his own. The woman's face on the cover of HoM 318, to me, really seems to be a model that McFarlane uses for alot of his females.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Schmakt

Schmakt

Posted
Posted
When did that come out? That dude leaning against the wall looks McFarlane-esque....

 

Keep in mind that Kaluta has been around since at least the early seventies. It might be more appropo to say that some McFarlane work is positively Kaluta-esque.

 

McFarlane was actually reading HoM during the early eighties and there's at least one maybe two fan letters printed in the series, HoM 300 being one. So I wouldn't be surprised if he internalized a bit of Kaluta's style and added it to his own. The woman's face on the cover of HoM 318, to me, really seems to be a model that McFarlane uses for alot of his females.

 

(thumbs u

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted

I agree with a lot of the sentiment about Kaluta being better than McFarlane.

 

However, you have to give it to McFarlane, he was able to put out a high quality run of ASM books for almost thirty issues and during some of that time I think they were publishing twice a month. Plus, I think his Hulk run may have slightly overlapped some of the ASM books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jeffro.

Jeffro.

Posted
Posted

I met Mike in NYC at a Javits show back in 1995. Met Mignola there too. In those days, you could just walk up to their tables. No lines lol

 

I'll have to dig out the Shadow comic I asked Kaluta to sign. I think it was a copy of this

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted

Not sure if anyone has seen thise before but I forgot to mention that someone on the Kaluta mailing list sent out a site that contains some nice scans of interior art. Normally, I wouldn't get to see this due to buying an encapsulated book. But the scans are beautiful.

 

kaluta_1973_09_forbiddendarkmansion_12.jpg

 

and this

 

kaluta_1973_02_forbiddendarkmansion_09.jpg

 

Here's the original site.

 

Kaluta Interior Art

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

Posted
Posted

 

I have a run of Kaluta's Shadow books, and I can see myself going back and getting some of the early to mid 70s horror books.  I never focused on his later cover-only work because the books generally seemed like they were of the  'great cover, poor interiors' variety, but I don't deny the possibility that I missed something here.   

 

I did buy the Marvel Graphic Novel version of Starstruck in the early 80s, which had superb art by him throughout. A few years later I bought my first Little Nemo In Slumberland reprint by Winsor McCay, and took to that material immediately - an obvious influence on Kaluta's style. There you go, we've gone from McCay to McFarlane through one intermediate step.

 

The recent issues of Madame Xanadu, with full artwork as well as covers by Kaluta, were also nice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted

Wow, Winsor McCay has never been on my radar but I just checked out some of his early 1900's Little Nemo comic strips and the work is pretty phenomenal. I'd like to get the So Many Splendid Sunday's book but the price seems a bit steep.

 

You're opinion of the 70's horror, IMHO, is right on the mark. The covers are fantastic but once you get to the inside, in a lot of cases, the work is less than stellar. Case in point is the Doorway to Nightmare series that Kaluta does the cover for. I bought a set of reader copies and the internal art is a real let down, to me, in comparison to the cover. Even worse the story is like a bad Harlequin romance book. But I guess that's a problem regardless of whether you're collecting Mike Kaluta, Bernie Wrightson, Jeff Jones or Neal Adams on the horror side...

 

That's one reason I like McFarlane. What you see on the outside of ASM, except for one issue I think, is exactly what you're getting on the inside. In the case of some of the early issues in his Hulk run, it's like a bonus because you have somebody like Steve Geiger drawing the cover. The only work by McFarlane that really let me down was the Infinity Incorporated work and I think that was because Tony Dezuniga's inks just didn't do his work credit...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

Posted
Posted

No, I see what you mean.

 

I haven't read anything with Michael Zulli art since the mid 90s, but my first impression back then was that his style was a fusion of BWS and Kaluta.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted

Here's a few Kaluta pedigrees I've picked up over the year. Sorry my scanner sucks a.s.s.

 

Here's the unfortunate, late Mr. Dahlberg's Detective 424:

 

Tec424TC.jpg

 

Here's Mr. Rosa's Phantom Stranger 26 and Brave and the Bold 176 (the wrap on the Phantom Stranger is, to me, heartbreakingly bad):

 

PS26DR.jpg

 

BB176DR.jpg

 

Here's the Suscha News Weird Worlds 6:

 

WW6SN.jpg

 

And finally here's the Detective 434 Rocky Mountain:

 

Tec434RM.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Walls

Walls

Posted
Posted

I bought almost that entire Books of Magic run when it came back out in the mid - late 90's. I took issue 66 with me to Baltimore last year, and Charles Vess was nice enough to sign it and draw a small sketch for me. It only came back a 9.6 though. I assume all the books I got from the LCS are in the same shape. I covet most of those Kaluta covers.

 

Too bad no one really cares about Tim Hunter. I mean he was kind of a Harry Potter before Harry Potter was cool.

 

Anyway, great Kalutas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing