The Creators of Starstruck and the Galactic Girl Guides
Elaine Lee (writer) has had incarnations as an EMMY-nominated actress and playwright, artistic director of a theatre company (Wild Hair Productions), comic book writer and color artist, animation writer and story editor, video game writer and director of motion capture, art director for a music company, co-author of a humorous self-help book and writer/producer with AudioComics… a company that produces full-cast “audio movies” based on comics, graphic novels and genre fiction. Specializing in sci-fi, fantasy and horror, Elaine has created six original comic series (BrainBanx, Skin Tight Orbit, The Transmutation of Ike Garuda) and has written for a number of other titles (Indiana Jones, Prince Valiant, Ragman). She is best known as writer/creator of Vamps (with Will Simpson, for DC/Vertigo) and Starstruck (with Michael Kaluta, for Heavy Metal, Marvel, Dark Horse, IDW). Lee and Kaluta produced a Starstruck spin-off, The Galactic Girl Guides, for Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer Adventure Magazine (Comico), the stories recently collected in the Starstruck Deluxe Edition from IDW. She has written animation scripts for Niolan, A-Film and Stardust Entertainment/Hallmark Entertainment. Elaine blogs about comics for the Huffington Post. <elaineleeonline.com>
Michael Kaluta (artist): Born in 1947, Michael was raised along the Eastern seaboard of the United States, then settled in New York City from 1969 to the present. His early professional art appeared in the Amazing and Fantastic pulp magazines, and the earliest comic book work appeared in various Charlton Comics. DC Comics was the Kaluta’s main focus of the 1970’s; drawing interiors and, eventually, covers for their House of Mystery and House of Secrets comic books. Covers for both Detective Comics and Batman were the next step, and, eventually, the nod to draw DC Comics 1970’s versions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Carson of Venus and Pulp Icon, The Shadow. In the realm of book illustration, Robert E Howard’s Lost Valley of Iskander and The Swords of Shahrazar were early highlights. Among a number of books and album covers, Michael illustrated Thea von Harbou’s METROPOLIS novel and completed 12 paintings for the 1994 J.R.R Tolkien Calendar. The new century saw a Madame Xanadu five-issue comic book story arc, and Chaos King, a special 30-page stand-alone book in Marvel’s Chaos War. “The pinnacle of my comic book effort is here in Elaine Lee’s decades-spanning epic, Starstruck.” <kaluta.com>
Lee Moyer (painter): Lee’s work has been featured in many Spectrum annuals, Communication Arts and Design Graphics magazines, The Society of Illustrators, D’Artiste, the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution, and countless other books, magazines and compendia. His film work can be found in HP Lovecraft; Fear of the Unknown, the poster for Call of Cthulhu, the covers for two boxed sets of Laurel & Hardy films from 20th Century Fox, and the Spiderman 2 Special Edition DVD. He’s illustrated authors as diverse as HP Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, Philip Jose Farmer, Iain M. Banks, and George RR Martin. His theatre work includes world premiere posters for Stephen Sondheim, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen King, John Mellencamp, and Andre 3000. His work in games includes Art Directing for Electronic Arts and Digital Addiction, as well as freelance work for Sony, Upper Deck, and Hasbro. He was one of the two lead concept artists for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. His Literary Pin-Up Calendar for 2012 has proven popular and there are whispers of another for 2013. In his spare time, he sculpts, writes for the stage and plays a mean game of Anagrams. <leemoyer.com>
Todd Klein (letterer): Todd Klein’s comics career began in 1977 when he was hired to work in the DC Comics production department. During ten years on staff there, Todd tried many kinds of freelance work including writing (TALES OF THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS, THE OMEGA MEN), inking and coloring, but found lettering suited him best, and developed a freelance career as a letterer and logo designer. Todd learned from and was inspired by the work of Gaspar Saladino, John Workman, John Costanza, Tom Orzechowski, and other letterers then working in comics. After leaving staff in 1987, Todd continued to work mainly for DC, but also for Marvel, Dark Horse, Disney, Gladstone, Image and many other companies, doing lettering and logo designs. Through the years he’s lettered over 65,000 comics pages and covers and designed over 800 logos. Todd has been presented with 16 Eisner Awards for Best Lettering, as well as 8 Harvey Awards and other honors. Recent projects include SANDMAN OVERTURE with Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III, STARSTRUCK with Elaine Lee and Michael Wm. Kaluta, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN with Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, and many other projects for Vertigo/DC Comics. You can learn more at his website: kleinletters.com.
See the latest Starstruck pages here!