Atomic Kommie Comics: Mike Kaluta

Showing posts with label Mike Kaluta. Show all posts

Monday, June 29, 2026

Monday Mecha Madness UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "War Toy"

It's the July 4th Week of the 250th Anniversary of the Founding of America!

Art by Mike Kaluta

So let's tell a tale of military AI!

Written by Tony Isabella, penciled by George Perez, and inked by Rico Rival, this tale of a sympathetic, benevolent, yet deadly robot from Marvel's anthology b/w magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #2 (1975) was the only time a story that wasn't an adaptation of a classic sci-fi prose story was featured on the cover of the magazine!
Speaking of the cover, you'll note the published version (as compared to the original by Mike Kaluta seen above) had two planets added to it at editor Roy Thomas' request...even though the action takes place on Earth!

Trivia: When "War Toy" was reprinted in another Marvel anthology b/w magazine Marvel Preview #20 (1980)...

...artist Howard Chaykin included the character in a new cover painting which featured his character Dominick Fortune along with the retro-style spaceship from the EC tribute story "Good Lord!"

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Sci-Fi Art: a Graphic History

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Thursday, February 1, 2024

Reading Room UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION "Hunter and the Hunted"

This is a tale that requires careful study...

...since, according to it's author, only one person has ever figured it out on first reading!

Originally published in the one-shot fanzine Abyss in 1970, Marvel's Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #2 (1975) reprinted the tale after it's writer-artist, Mike Kaluta gained pop culture fame as the illustrator of DC Comics' revival of the pulp hero The Shadow!

UWoSF Editor Roy Thomas commented that Kaluta “…congratulated [him] for being one of the few human beings he’s met who actually figured the story out on first reading.”

Have you figured it out, dear reader?

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The Studio

A long-OOP trade paperback featuring the work of Kaluta, Jeffrey Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Berni Wrightson when they shared a NY loft in the 1970s!

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Reading Room TIME WARP "Return to the Stars"

As various countries (including us, due to Don da Con) plan to weaponize Outer Space...

...take a look back to when we weren't trying to act like total idiots outside of our planet's atmosphere and threats to peace were only from our own species.

Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!
While Howard Chaykin certainly is an "established pro", writer Wyatt Gwyon, who might qualify as a newcomer, is a mystery.
With less than two dozen stories to his credit, Gwyon came onto the comics scene in 1977 scripting horror and sci-fi stories for various DC anthology titles until he disappeared in 1983.
There was no sign of him in comics...or anywhere else...until he popped-up again...with a one-page Wolverine story in Marvel's What If...? #34 (1992)!
Was "Wyatt Gwyon" a pseudonym?
Probably, since Wyatt Gwyon was the protagonist of William Gaddis' acclaimed 1950s novel The Recognitions.
He's a frustrated fine artist with a gift for imitating the styles of Old Masters.
Unscrupulous art dealers and critics use him to create phony "undiscovered Old Masters" they sell for huge prices!
Was Wyatt a novelist/poet/movie-TV scripter who decided to try his hand at comics?
Or was he a DC or Marvel staffer who wanted to make some extra cash?
We'll probably never know...
...or will we?
According to Martin O'Hern, comics creator detective, the Who's Who created by mega-fan Jerry Bails (aka the Father of Comic Book Fandom) identifies "Gwyon" as long-time DC scripter Martin Pasko...but with a "?" by his name, probably because it's never been fully-confirmed.

Note that Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Reading Room ADVENTURE COMICS "Wings of Jealous Gods"

In 1972, Supergirl moved from Adventure Comics into her own title...

...and DC decided to restore Adventure to its' original anthology format.

The first issue (425) featured the kool Mike Kaluta cover seen above, along with a never-reprinted, high-adventure story illustrated by a Golden Age pro who had moved to the animation field, but still kept in touch with his comic book roots...

Alex Toth made a brief return to DC in 1972-73, doing stories for several titles, including Adventure (where he did a two-part Black Canary back-up tale several issues earlier), Detective, and Our Fighting Forces.

Toth would do one more tale for Adventure Comics during this period; "Is a Snerl Human?", which we presented HERE.

(If you want to see all the Alex Toth stories we've presented, click HERE.)

Lynn Marron scripted several tales for DC and Warren in the early 1970s before disappearing from comics...but not from writing!

She's the author of several ongoing mystery and fantasy series available as e-books or print-on-demand editions on Amazon.

Check out her website HERE.

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