Mentoring

And my portrait of Kubert as he looked mentoring a room full of people, oh sometime back in the 80s.

La, High Priestess of the Sun Temple of Opar

Joe Kubert was another of my comix heroes to have delineated ERB characters for DC way back when. And so of course, when I had the chance, I really wanted him to depict a grande femme from the ERB canon. And who better than La, High Priestess of the Sun Temple of Opar? 

Kubert's female renditions have a quality all their own, dating back to the early Hawkgirl, that I'd always admired. So it was a real thrill to sit and watch him swirl this drawing into existence. Many of his drawings of women show them in distress, weeping, hurting, needing rescue—a very sad view of women. But those of his renditions showing women as strong, decisive, independent persons are my highest favorites.

With a long and wonderful career, Joe Kubert is the grand old master of comicdom, the highest order of instructors, the Dumbledore of mentors. He is a great guy.

 I have other originals of Joe's that I will post some other time.

Ooh—La La

La, La, La

Joe's double page splashes were always the best!

Kane & Able

Gil Kane was another artist associated with Edgar Rice Burroughs' work, and so when I talked with him at a convention in the 80s, he agreed to a commissioned drawing of my favorite ERBian characters—Dejah Thoris and John Carter:

This time I was able to sit with him to watch the drawing develop (very quickly—he was fast). We talked a bit while he was drawing, and then he agreed to meet later, to sell me some more of his art and talk some more. I will post about that another time. 

I was thrilled with his drawing, showing more of a Gil Kane style than most of the published comic book art does, since all that was inked by others. It was his idea to show more of Dejah Thoris than could ever be seen in the comics. The very next day I came down with the flu, and in my delerium I was transfixed with the drawing and fever dreamed a Barsoomian adventure.

The Marvel run of John Carter wasn't the best interpretation, but there were high points (especially Infantino's later involvement). But Kane's stuff was always great to see, as he put such style to it, drawing much of what he did straight from his imagination.

  
Above shows how I probably sounded in my flu delerium, although I don't think they were pleaful cries—gawd I hope not.

The Girl in the Garden

With a bit more detail than we ever saw in the comics, I was quite happy with Kaluta's portrait of young Duare. She seems to me to be a blend of Kaluta, Krenkel and St. John.

The fantasy lives.

Thanks again Mike!

Near and Dear

Above is my portrait of Kaluta as he looked in 1985. Below is his classy card that he presented to me (I pixelated the address) when I commissioned a drawing.

So imagine, when I'm lucky enough to meet and talk with Kaluta at a 2 day convention, and even luckier to have him agree to a commissioned drawing. When you have a Burroughs artist at hand, the time is right to ask for a Burroughs subject, especially when you've got other Burroughs artists' renderings of other Burroughs subjects.

The point being, I asked him to create a portrait of Duare. He agreed, but said he would like time to do it right. So that night in his hotel room he took time to render a portrait of Duare, a subject that seemed near and dear to his heart, and brought it to me the next day.

Beautiful and Harsh

Edgar Rice Burroughs had a way of rendering exotic females with words, setting the stage for an illustrator to render them with pen and ink. John Carter had his Dejah Thoris, and Carson Napier had his beautiful Duare. 

Both were great fantasies (in the best sense of the word) for adolescent boys dreaming of high adventure. Kaluta's rendering of Duare was beautiful and harsh, an exotic blending of qualities.

Kaluta's details helped to make the visuals stunning, at least for the times they were first published.

These two pages from different chapters are of differing approaches

Good Company

Kaluta certainly was in good company in rendering the Carson saga.

Kaluta

Krenkel

St. John

Nice Chapter

This is a nice chapter from the Carson series:

It Was a Great Run

At a time when a lot of comics were in sort of a rut, Kaluta's comic work verged on illustrative design. His splash pages for the Venus series of Edgar Rice Burroughs were evocative of the old days of Krenkel and even further back to St. John. The typography was fun and adventurous. The drawing, while not the best if you look at it close-up, was appropriate for ERB. It was a great run, it's just too bad Kaluta didn't have more room to run around in.

What an Artist Loves

Couldn't show Kaluta without showing The Shadow. Always have an artist draw what an artist loves.

Al Capone at the Turkish Bath

Happy Sunday! Continuing the look back, 45 years ago today:

And from 1955, Ol' Albert does some POWerful emoting:

and NO one's cuter than Grundoon

MWK Comix

Kaluta's comix covers are distinctive and dramatic. 

They are Daring & Colorful.

Above is the backcover of the Rocketeer special.  One of my favorite Kaluta comic pages.

MWK Comix