A page from Kaluta's
STARSTRUCK graphic novel (Marvel Graphic Novel 13, Jan 1985). At 74 pages, the most new art until recently of any Kaluta book.
Beautiful art and colors, it was previously serialized in HEAVY METAL from Nov 1982 to July 1983, in episodes of 7 to 10 pages per issue.
It's beautiful to look at, fun and playful, but a bit cynical and deliberately silly for my taste. But still beautiful work. My favorite part is the spaceships, panoramic landcapes and the retro-futuristic technology, much of which looks like it could have been in the 1926 film
Metropolis, or the 1936
Flash Gordon movie serial. Clearly, Kaluta was deeply invested in this series. It is the longest continuing series Kaluta has worked on.
In 1985, there was a sequel Marvel/Epic Comics
STARSTRUCK series that ran 6 issues, 30 pages per issue. But for my taste while nice art, not as nice as the original graphic novel. And truly awful and garish coloring. Some colored by series writer Elaine Lee, some by Steve Oliff (usually the absolute best colorist in the business), colors so garish that it diminishes the story.
There were two final Starstruck stories in this era, in
ROCKETEER ADVENTURE MAGAZINE 1 (10 pages)and 2 (11 pages) for Comico in 1988 and 1989. A 3rd issue was published by Dark Horse in 1995, with no Starstuck story, but Kaluta along with Sandy Plunkett and Arthur Adams assisted Dave Stevens in an artist jam on the Rocketeer story.
All of which totals about 280 pages of combined work on the STARSTRUCK series, that I'm aware of. Which is more than all his other comics work combined, except for maybe cover art pages.
So it's definitely an important part of the Kaluta canon of work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstruck_(comics)
