The Shadow #1 original art cover by Michael Kaluta

I am sure all Silver Age fans remember Kaluta's famous 1973 cover to The Shadow #1.  I always found the texture and shading on that piece to be different than any other cover I had seen up to that point.

The original cover art to this piece, which looks even better in black and white than full color!  The Shadow is rendered with tones, a grey ink wash perhaps?  The train and city skyline draw your attention to the figure in the center. 

Here is a DC house ad from House of Mystery 217, announcing the forthcoming arrival of The Shadow in July 1973.  Doc Savage was already being published by Marvel and Steranko had brought these pulp heroes back into the spotlight from his History of Comics.  Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Madame Xanadu 1981 poster and cover by Michael Kaluta

This nifty little poster was a full color glossy insert to Madame Xanadu #1 from 1981.

This special one-shot gave Michael Kaluta's character the star treatment in a story by Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers.  I believe this special was aimed at the direct market only.  The pin-up makes Xanadu look like a Doctor Strange type character.

Here is Kaluta's cover to the special, sans any logos or letters, from the back cover.  Englehart and Rogers had more Madame Xanadu stories in the pipeline, but these morphed into the character Scorpio Rose for Eclipse Comics--see They Stole Frazier's Brain for more details.  Nuff Said!

Monster Monday: Doorway To Nightmare with Michael Kaluta and Madame Xanadu

I often bought comics just for the cover alone, if the artist was one of my favorites: Bernie Wrightson and Neal Adams were certainly in that group and Michael Kaluta soon joined them.  When DC Comics decided to create a new horror anthology title in 1978, Joe Orlando asked Kaluta to design the cover.

Madame Xanadu's first appearance was on the cover to Doorway To Nightmare #1.  Kaluta created her at request of Joe Orlando, according to this article on Wikipedia.  Unlike the hosts of House of Mystery/Secrets, Xanadu was integral to the self-contained stories in each issue.  Usually the plot revolved around a visitor to her Tarot shop and it went from there.  The first issue featured a story by David Micheline and Val Mayerik.

The cover to issue #2 makes even better use of the Tarot card motif than the first one.  I am not a Tarot guy, everything I know comes from Marvel and DC Comics.  The most famous cards being Death, The Devil, and The Hanged Man.  After that, I am clueless.

The third issue featured a beautiful night scene making use of different shades of blue.  It is Xanadu on the cover but you almost think it could be a different vampire-like character.  The story inside does have to do with a woman who falls in love with a vampire.

Here is the original art to the vampire cover.  It is beautifully and simply conceived.  I love how the bat shrieks and the drop of blood that matches the title of the story: Blood Red Tear.

Doorway To Nightmare #5 has Madame Xanadu playfully running her finger along the top of a bottle that seems to imprison a demon.  And here is why Xanadu is a great creation that has grown since her 1978 debut.  She can be spooky and mysterious but at other times can be playful and mischievous.  Xanadu isn't overly buxom but she is sexy in a classy way.

Here is the original art to that cover.  The line work that Kaluta put into this is amazing.  I always wondered how much artists like Wrightson and Kaluta got paid for covers.  I read somewhere it definitely helped them pay the rent.

I haven't read any of the Madame Xanadu Vertigo series that came out a few years ago.  I have enjoyed her recent appearances in Justice League Dark.  Nuff Said.

The Shadow "Lamont Cranston & Margo Lane" poster by Michael Kaluta

I recently came across this gem that was published as a poster in 1976.

Lamont Cranston (aka The Shadow) and Margo Lane enjoying a night out on the town, with his alter ego hanging over them in the painting.  I remember this one fondly as I painstakingly tried to copy this in pencil for a high school art class.  I could not match the mastery of Michael Kaluta!  Nuff Said.

Phantom Stranger and the Monster of Frankenstein by Mike Kaluta

The Phantom Stranger series from the 1970s holds a special place in my heart.  Most of the stories were self-contained tales of mystery/horror/suspense where the Stranger was often a supporting character.

The Phantom Stranger #26 was the most unusual issue out of the entire run.  The Stranger took a key role in the story and actually crossed-over with the backup series, The Spawn of Frankenstein.  DC Comics' version of Frankenstein isn't as memorable to me as Marvel Comics take on the character.  But I have always loved this cover by Michael Kaluta, featuring the Monster chasing a woman on a ledge decorated with gothic creatures.  The simplicity, the angle of the shot, and the Stranger's silhouette are perfect.  Happy Halloween!  Nuff Said!