Jim Starlin

Jim Starlin is a veteran comic book writer and artist, who has worked for Marvel Comics, DC Comics and others since at least the 1970s.

Starlin grew up in Detroit and got his break into comics working for Roy Thomas and John Romita at Marvel Comics in the early 1970s. Starlin along with Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and Walter Simonson was part of the generation of artists and writers who arrived in comics at that time who were primarily fans of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby "Silver Age of Comics".

Starlin's first job was as a finisher on pages of Spider-Man. He was then given a shot to draw an issue of a failing title Captain Marvel (issue 25). Starlin took over as writer with the next issue and introduced the character Thanos, an homage to Kirby's Darkseid character. Starlin developed through the comic an elaborate cosmology for the Marvel Universe that was much referenced by other writers.

Starlin co-created the kung fu craze cash-in character Shang Chi and then began his most legendary work: a re-imagining of a minor Kirby creation, Adam Warlock. After his departure the Captain Marvel title had again declined and Starlin was given the for the time rare opportunity to kill off the character in a graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel.

Most of the 1980s were taken up for Starlin scripting and drawing Dreadstar for Epic Comics (an imprint of Marvel Comics), and later for First Comics. In the late 1980s he switched to DC Comics and wrote the "Batman: Death in the Family" story arc (in which the second Robin died) and back at Marvel for the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, featuring the return of one of his best-known creations, the mad Titan Thanos.

Starlin has also written, with Diana Graziunas, books such as Thinning the Predators.

Comics bibliography

• Warlock
• Captain Marvel
• Silver Surfer
• The Thanos Quest
• The Infinity Gauntlet
• The Infinity War
• The Infinity Crusade
• Thanos: Infinity Abyss
• Marvel Universe: The End
• Dreadstar
• Gilamesh II
• Cosmic Odyssey