Early career[edit]
After leaving the Navy, Starlin sold two stories to DC Comics. [6]
After writing and drawing stories for a number of fan publications, Jim Starlin entered the comics
industry in 1972, working for Roy Thomas and John Romita at Marvel Comics.[7] Starlin was part of
the generation of artists and writers who grew up as fans of Silver Age Marvel Comics. At a Steve
Ditko-focused panel at the 2008 Comic-Con International, Starlin said, "Everything I learned about
storytelling was [due to] him or Kirby. [Ditko] did the best layouts." [8]
Starlin's first job for Marvel was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man.[9] He then drew
three issues of Iron Man, that introduced the characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer.[10] He was
then given the chance to draw an issue (#25) of the "cosmic" title Captain Marvel.[11] Starlin took over
as plotter the following issue, and began developing an elaborate story arc centered on the villainous
Thanos, and spread across a number of Marvel titles. Starlin left Captain Marvel one issue after
concluding his Thanos saga.
Concurrently in the mid-1970s, Starlin contributed a cache of stories to the independently
published science-fiction anthology Star Reach. Here he developed his ideas of God, death, and
infinity, free of the restrictions of mainstream comics publishers' self-censorship arm, the Comics
Code Authority. Starlin also drew "The Secret of Skull River", inked by frequent collaborator Al
Milgrom, for Savage Tales #5 (July 1974).[12]
After working on Captain Marvel, Starlin and writer Steve Englehart co-created the character Shang-
Chi, Master of Kung Fu,[13][14] though they only worked on the early issues of the Master of Kung
Fu series. Starlin then took over the title Warlock,[15] starring a genetically engineered being created
by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s and re-imagined by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane in the 1970s
as a Jesus Christ-like figure on an alternate Earth. Envisioning the character as philosophical
and existentially tortured, Starlin wrote and drew a complex space opera with theological and
psychological themes. Warlock confronted the militaristic Universal Church of Truth, eventually
revealed to be created and led by an evil evolution of his future–past self, known as Magus. Starlin
ultimately incorporated Thanos into this story. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "In a brief
stint with Marvel, which included work on two characters [Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock] that
had previously never quite made their mark, Starlin managed to build a considerable cult
following."[16]
In Fall 1978,[17] Starlin, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, and Val Mayerik formed Upstart Associates,
a shared studio space on West 29th Street in New York City. The membership of the studio changed
over time.[18]
Death and suicide are recurring themes in Starlin's work: Personifications of Death appeared in his
Captain Marvel series and in a fill-in story for Ghost Rider; Warlock commits suicide by killing his
future self; and suicide is a theme in a story he plotted and drew for The Rampaging Hulk magazine.
Starlin occasionally worked for Marvel's chief competitor DC Comics and drew stories for Legion of
Super-Heroes[9] and the "Batman" feature in Detective Comics[19] in the late 1970s.
1980s[edit]
Starlin co-created the supervillain Mongul with writer Len Wein in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov.
1980).[20]
The new decade found Starlin creating an expansive story titled "the Metamorphosis Odyssey",
which introduced the character of Vanth Dreadstar in Epic Illustrated #3. From its beginning in Epic
Illustrated, the initial story was painted in monochromatic grays, eventually added to with other
tones, and finally becoming full color.[21] The storyline was further developed in The
Price[22] and Marvel Graphic Novel #3[23][24] and eventually the long-running Dreadstar comic book,
published first by Epic Comics,[25][26] and then by First Comics.[27][28]
Starlin was given the opportunity to produce a one-shot story in which to kill off a main
character. The Death of Captain Marvel became the first graphic novel published by Marvel itself.[29]
[Note 1]
Starlin and Bernie Wrightson produced Heroes for Hope, a 1985 one-shot designed to raise money
for African famine relief and recovery.[30] Published in the form of a "comic jam," the book featured an
all-star lineup of comics creators as well as a few notable authors from outside the comic book
industry, such as Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, and Edward Bryant.[9] In 1986,
he and Wrightson produced a second benefit comic for famine relief. Heroes Against Hunger,
featuring Superman and Batman, was published by DC and like the earlier Marvel benefit project
featured many top comics creators. [9][31]
Starlin became the writer of Batman, and one of his first storylines for the title was "Ten Nights of
The Beast"[32] in issues #417–420 (March – June 1988) which introduced the KGBeast. Starlin then
wrote the four-issue miniseries Batman: The Cult (Aug.–Nov. 1988) drawn by Wrightson,[33] and the
storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family" in Batman #426–429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989),[34] in
which Jason Todd, the second of Batman's Robin sidekicks, was killed by the Joker. The
controversial storyline was suggested by editor Denny O'Neil and lined up with Starlin's well-known
desire to remove the Robin character from Batman's storyline. [35] The death was decided by fans, as
DC Comics set up a hotline for readers to vote on as to whether or not Jason Todd should survive a
potentially fatal situation. Starlin was fired off the Batman title soon afterward.[36]
Other projects for DC included writing The Weird drawn by Wrightson[9] and Cosmic Odyssey drawn
by Mike Mignola.[37] Starlin wrote and drew Gilgamesh II in 1989 before returning to Marvel.[9]
