Podcast Episode 197 :: MICHAEL WM. KALUTA

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Hero moments are pretty easy to come by doing this show. One minute, you're conducting an interview and trying to be professional. The next, a "fanboy unease" comes over you when you realize you're talking to someone whose art you've admired for most of your life.

That happened to me in waves while chatting with Michael William Kaluta.

Since I was a teen, Kaluta has been an artistic hero of mine. I was a fiend for his run on The Shadow with writer Denny O'Neil, all of his short stories at DC Comics, and the stacks and stacks of comic book covers he drew throughout the '70s and '80s.

It was somewhere in those '80s that I rediscovered Mike as a painter and illustrator. He had joined up with a unique quartet of artists that you may have heard of. Yes, that's right — The Studio. Together with Jeff Jones, Bernie Wrightson, and Barry Windsor-Smith, Mike Kaluta made fantasy art history in the New York City loft they all shared on West 26th street. Oh, to have been a fly on their wall.

Much of the above and more is covered in the interview, so settle in. We also get the scoop on what he's working on these days (hint: it involves a certain princess on a certain planet in our solar system). Here's the one and only — Mike Kaluta!

- SWAiN

**And here is a link to the Alan Parsons Project's video for "Don't Answer Me". Mike did design and concept work on it.

Comments

[Jeff Lafferty]

Great interview guys!

[Shawn]

Wow! That was awesome! (Drool)

[Luis]

Glad to hear the kaluta interview. I recently discovered him while flipping through some old epic illustrated. Immediately boughtthe february '85 issue. Also thnx for getting me back into comics and schooling me on the classics. I havent been into comics since the mid 90's.