on a copy of
Fear Itself: Fearsome Four, at a June 8, 2011
Midtown Comics appearance Kaluta's early work included a three-page adventure story, "The Battle of Shiraz", in Charlton Comics
Flash Gordon #18 (Jan. 1970) and an adaptation of
Edgar Rice Burroughs's
Carson of Venus novels for
DC Comics. Kaluta's influences and style are drawn from pulp illustrations of the 1930s and the turn-of-the-century poster work of
Alphonse Mucha – his signature motif is elaborate decorative panel designs – rather than the
comic books of the Silver Age. He has rarely worked with the superhero genre, although one of his early contributions for DC was a "World of Krypton" backup story in
Superman #240 (July 1971). His first cover for a comic book was
House of Mystery #200 (March 1972). Associated during the 1970s with
Bernie Wrightson and
Jeffrey Jones, he contributed illustrations to
Ted White's
Fantastic and
Amazing Stories. Kaluta co-created
Eve in
Secrets of Sinister House #6 (Aug.–Sept. 1972), a horror comics "host" character later turned into a supporting character in
The Sandman. He and writer
Dennis O'Neil produced a comics adaptation of
The Shadow for DC in 1973–1974. Comics historian
Les Daniels noted that "Kaluta's style [on
The Shadow] is an homage to
Graves Gladney, master of the pulp magazine covers of the 1930s." Kaluta left the series after drawing five of the first six issues. Kaluta was one of the four comic book artists/fine illustrator/painters (along with Jeffrey Jones,
Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson) who formed the artists' commune
The Studio in a loft in Manhattan's
Chelsea district in 1975 and continuing to 1979. In addition to many comic book stories and covers, Kaluta has done a wide variety of book illustrations. Kaluta drew the cover for the
Madame Xanadu one-shot in 1981 which was DC's second direct sales only comic. He and writer
Elaine Lee crafted
Marvel Graphic Novel #13 "
Starstruck: The Luckless, the Abandoned and Forsaked" which led to an ongoing series which ran for six issues. In 2006, Kaluta was one of the artists on the
1001 Nights of Snowfall graphic novel written by
Bill Willingham. In 1984 he drew the illustrations for and directed the music video of "
Don't Answer Me" by
The Alan Parsons Project, which became one of the most requested videos of the year on the cable video channel
MTV. Among music fans, Kaluta is known as the cover artist of
Glenn Danzig's instrumental album
Black Aria and for the interior illustration of
Danzig's
fourth album, the latter of which appeared in 1994 and 1995 as a pendant sold at Danzig concerts, and on Danzig T-shirts and sweaters produced in the same period. Kaluta created the CD covers and interior booklet illustrations for
Nativity in Black I and
II, tribute albums to the music of
Black Sabbath. Kaluta drew the cover art for the
Bobby Pickett album
The Original Monster Mash when it was reissued in 1973. Kaluta has worked for role-playing game companies such as
White Wolf Publishing. He has done artwork for
collectible card games companies, including a comic book for
Wizards of the Coast's
Magic: The Gathering and illustrating cards on
Last Unicorn Games'
Heresy: Kingdom Come. In the early 1990s, he was active in
Compuserve's Macintosh Gaming Forum, in the flight simulator enthusiast group which called itself VFA-13 Shadow Riders. He contributed a number of designs for airplane nose art and flight suit unit patches. ==Awards==