Jim Starlin

James P. Starlin (born October 9, 1949) is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, and Shang-Chi. Starlin wrote the miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, all detailing Thanos's pursuit of the Infinity Gems and his conflict with the heroes of the Marvel Universe.

For DC Comics, he drew many iconic characters, including Darkseid, and wrote the seminal storyline A Death in the Family which featured the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin, during his run on Batman. For Epic Illustrated, he created his own character, Dreadstar.

Early life Jim Starlin was born on October 9, 1949, in Detroit, Michigan. He had a Catholic upbringing. In the 1960s, Starlin served as an aviation photographer in the US Navy in Vietnam. During his off duty time, he drew and submitted various comics.

Early career After leaving the navy, Starlin sold two stories to DC Comics. 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."

Starlin's first job for Marvel was as a finisher on pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. He then drew three issues of Iron Man which introduced the characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer. He was then given the chance to draw an issue (#25) of the "cosmic" title Captain Marvel. Starlin took over as plotter the following issue, and began developing an elaborate story arc centered on the villainous Thanos which 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).

After working on Captain Marvel, Starlin and writer Steve Englehart co-created the character Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, though they only worked on the early issues of the Master of Kung Fu series. Starlin then took over the title Warlock, 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."

In Fall 1978, 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.

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 in the late 1970s.

1980s Starlin co-created the supervillain Mongul with writer Len Wein in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov. 1980).

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. The storyline was further developed in The Price and Marvel Graphic Novel #3 and eventually the long-running Dreadstar comic book, published first by Epic Comics, and then by First Comics.

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.

Starlin and Bernie Wrightson produced Heroes for Hope, a 1985 one-shot designed to raise money for African famine relief and recovery. 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.

Starlin became the writer of Batman, and one of his first storylines for the title was "Ten Nights of The Beast" 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, and the storyline "Batman: A Death in the Family" in Batman #426–429 (Dec. 1988 – Jan. 1989), 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. 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.

Other projects for DC included writing The Weird drawn by Wrightson Starlin wrote and drew Gilgamesh II in 1989 before returning to Marvel. Here, Starlin brought back Adam Warlock, whom he had killed years earlier in his concluding Warlock story in The Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 in 1977. The Infinity Gauntlet proved successful and was followed by the sequel miniseries The Infinity War and Infinity Crusade.

In 1998, he created Hardcore Station in 1998 for DC Comics. In 2007–2008, he worked on the DC miniseries Death of the New Gods and Rann-Thanagar Holy War, He wrote the eight-issue miniseries Strange Adventures in 2009 and in 2013, became the writer of Stormwatch, one of the series of The New 52 line, beginning with issue #19.

In 2016, Starlin's drawing hand was injured in an accident, which limited him to writing stories without the opportunity to illustrate them. "It takes me two minutes to write the sentence and will take the artist a day and a half to draw the scene. But there is a certain satisfaction to the drawing part … you get up from the drawing board at the end of the day and there's this image there that wasn't there before. That's very satisfying and I miss that."

In early 2020 it was announced that Starlin had rehabilitated his drawing hand and would be publishing a new Dreadstar graphic novel, Dreadstar Returns, backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign. The book was published in June 2021.

In 2024, Starlin announced that he plans to use generative AI technology for future projects, including Dreadstar vs. Dreadstar.

Other work Starlin co-wrote four novels with his then-wife Daina Graziunas (whom he married in October 1980): Among Madmen (Roc Books, 1990), Lady El (Roc Books, 1992), Thinning the Predators (1996, Warner Books; paperback edition entitled Predators); and Pawns (1989, serialized in comic book Dreadstar #42–54). Starlin makes a cameo appearance in the film Avengers: Endgame as a member of Steve Rogers's support group.

Awards 1973: Won the "Outstanding New Talent" Shazam Award, tied with Walt Simonson 1974: Nominated for the "Superior Achievement by an Individual" Shazam Award 1975: Won the "Favorite Pro Penciller" Comic Fan Art Award 1975: Received an Inkpot Award 1977: Nominated for the "Favourite Comicbook Artist" Eagle Award 1978: Won the "Favourite Single Story" Eagle Award, for Avengers Annual #7: The Final Threat Won the "Favourite Continued Story" Eagle Award, for Avengers Annual #7 / Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 Nominated for the "Favourite Artist" Eagle Award Nominated for "Best Comic" British Fantasy Award, for Avengers Annual #7: The Final Threat 1979: Nominated for "Best Comic" British Fantasy Award, for Among the Great Divide (The Rampaging Hulk #7), with Steve Gerber and Bob Wiacek 1986: Won the "Best Long Story" Haxtur Award, for Dreadstar Received the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, jointly with Bernie Wrightson 1992: Won the "Best Script" Haxtur Award, for Silver Surfer #1–5 Nominated for the "Best Long Story" Haxtur Award, for Silver Surfer #1–5, with Ron Lim Nominated for the "Best Short Story" Haxtur Award, for Deeply Buried Secrets (Silver Surfer #12), with Ron Lim Nominated for the "Best Cover" Haxtur Award, for Breed #6 2017: Eisner Award Hall of Fame