[5] Kaluta's influences and style are drawn from pulp illustrations of the 1930s and the turn-of-the-century poster work of Alphonse Mucha – his signature motif is elaborate decorative panel designs – rather than the comic books of the Silver Age.

He has rarely worked with the superhero genre, although one of his early contributions for DC was a "World of Krypton" backup story in Superman #240 (July 1971).

[8] Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Kaluta's style [on The Shadow] is an homage to Graves Gladney, master of the pulp magazine covers of the 1930s.

[10] Kaluta was one of the four comic book artists/fine illustrator/painters (along with Jeffrey Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Bernie Wrightson) who formed the artists' commune The Studio in a loft in Manhattan's Chelsea district in 1975 and continuing to 1979.

[11][12][13] He and writer Elaine Lee crafted Marvel Graphic Novel #13 "Starstruck: The Luckless, the Abandoned and Forsaked" which led to an ongoing series which ran for six issues.

[17] In the early 1990s, he was active in Compuserve's Macintosh Gaming Forum, in the flight simulator enthusiast group which called itself VFA-13 Shadow Riders.