Nightmaster by Kaluta

I inspired Michael W. Kaluta. No, it's true. I swear.

It was announced that Mr. Kaluta was coming to Charlotte for a mini-convention appearance back in the day, and so wanted to ask him to draw a sketch for me. I started saving my money, but what should I ask him to draw? Sure, the Shadow, obvious choice, right? But I figured that everybody would be asking him for a Shadow.

After reading that his first published art may have been working on backgrounds and the like for Wrightson's Nightmaster series in DC's Showcase Comics, I decided that Nightmaster it would be. However, when I got to the convention and approached him, he was telling everybody that he just did not feel like drawing.

That was too bad, I said, and I told him about my Nightmaster idea while he signed a few books – not too many; I didn't want to impose. He asked me why I chose Nightmaster and I told him what I'd read and he nodded. After he finished signing the last book, I moved to get out of the way so that the next person could get his signature, but he said, "Where are you going?"

Well, I said I didn't want to take up all his time and he said (and I quote), "No, wait. You've inspired me."

I talked with him the whole time he drew it. For the record, his dream, if I remember this correctly, was to sit beneath a tree and strum away a whole afternoon with Joni Mitchell and also, that his name on his business card was printed in red letters because Jesus' name in the Bible was always printed in red and, well, he had to model his life after somebody.