Jim Starlin is a creator with a rich history and respected body of work. In addition to his upcoming Thanos ongoing series for Marvel, Dynamic Forces has entered into an agreement to reissue some of the stories that are among the richest of his vast body of work. As detailed in a late May 2003 announcement “Dynamic Forces has arranged with Jim Starlin to collect the first 12 issues of the groundbreaking series [Dreadstar {in a full-color deluxe hardcover collection}] that was originally published by Epic in 1982. This classic series not only helped to launch the original Marvel Epic imprint, but was the first creator-owned property from Marvel. The series was so popular at the time, that Marvel also republished these stories to the newsstand market under the title Dreadstar & Company in 1985, a first at the time! Starlin … launched the Marvel Graphic Novel line with the Death of Captain Marvel - one of the most treasured tales of all time! Jim is also famous for being the writer who killed Robin, in the Batman: A Death In the Family storyline for DC Comics! In addition to creating his own titles Dreadstar, Breed, Wyrd, and Hardcore Station, Starlin created or co-created the fan favorite characters Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, Thanos, Mongul, and Moondragon.”
SBC recently checked in with Starlin to get his perspective on the upcoming Thanos series as well as his business relationship with Dynamic Forces.
Tim O’Shea: As the creator of Thanos back in the 1970s, how gratifying is it that nearly three decades later interest is so great in the character that he's embarking on his own solo title?
Jim Starlin: It's rather strange in several ways. Most folks probably don't know this but Thanos was the very first character I ever created for comics. Home run first time up to bat. Of course I've had several strike outs since then. Anyone remember Rasputin? In fact I put Thanos together before I even started working for Marvel. He was inspired by a psyche class I was taking and when I started working for Marvel Roy Thomas gave me this Iron Man fill-in issue to do. I asked if I could possibly plot it and so, worked in Thanos. Roy told me to bulk Thanos up (he originally looked more like Metron, of the News Gods than Darkseid) and he's been getting bigger ever since (in many different ways).
TO: What do you like most about working with Al Milgrom on Thanos, what value does he add to your work?
JS: Al gives my work some angles to the line my pencils lack. He also knows when to simplify when I get to noodlie. Al and I go back to my high school days, so he's been part of the mix longer than Thanos has. He was one of the smart kids and I ran with a tougher crowd. Al'd run up to me in the hallways at school and blurt out, "Did you see the new issue of the Fantastic Four?" I'd then have to pull him aside and once again explain to him that if my friends knew I was reading anything they might decide to grind me to hamburger. We talk more openly these days.
TO: Given that Thanos, Warlock and the supporting cast have been characters you've been quite familiar with for a number of years, I was wondering, did you have a favorite among the characters in the 1970s? And if so, is your favorite character of this group the same one in 2003, if not who is it and why?
JS: I guess it's always been Thanos. He's always allowed me to go wherever I wanted to. With that much power, self-hate, ego and generally messed-up psyche there's just about nothing he wouldn't try. Now he's trying to be a good guy but he's still Thanos so you'll just have to tune in to see how badly that goes. Another great thing about the character is that he can fail and it just doesn't seem to diminish him. The grandeur of his maniacal acts seems to make up for the fact that he seldom comes out a winner. Warlock comes in second. He was a great way to work out a lot of angst I was going through back then. Yes, I was almost as crazy as he was in those days, just didn't have the power to do anything near as interesting as he did.
TO: While there's no plans to "revive" the late/original Captain Marvel, would you ever consider doing a flashback story in Thanos featuring him, or have you already said all you've wanted to with that character?
JS: I've got a germ of an idea about the Big Guy having an encounter with the Original Captain Marvel but there's nothing solid about it yet. I'm also talking to Peter David about a possible crossover with the current CM. But there's nothing definite about that either. I don't like to plan too far ahead and get locked into anything.
TO: Have you had a chance to see any of the progress DF has made on the Dreadstar hardback, collecting the first 12 issues of the Epic series?
JS: Only a few pages and they look as good as the original books, if not better. It's very interesting revisiting this work. A lot of Dreadstar was about being an anarchist. The guy is nothing but a revolutionary. He's only capable of fighting injustice and always proved inadequate in living in a settled environment. The ultimate bomb thrower.
TO: I'm particularly curious to see what pleases you most--in terms of the fact that "DF is going back to the original films, having them re-scanned and digitally remastered for the highest quality reproduction" [excerpt from the Dreadstar DF announcement] --is there a particular scene or issue that you think looks even more incredible or more effective than when you saw it published the first time?
JS: At this point in time DF is still in the process of scanning the work so there's not much I can say about it. But everything I have seen, from the covers to the ads, have been done with the highest quality in mind and achieved. It should be a terrific little collection and look great gathering dust on anyone's bookshelves. How's that for a blatant enough plug?
TO: Given that DF is re-mastering the art, did you have to fight the urge to tweak story elements or dialogue a bit, or not?
JS: Not in the first collection. Those twelve issues stand alone quite well. When we get to the Met Od [Metamophasis Odyssey] I do plan to do a little tweaking on the art. There are a few panels that didn't come out as well as planned due to the reproduction limits back then. Shooting the art with a camera, as opposed to your modern day scanner, left you at the mercy of the photographer back then. Also in some of the later issues of Dreadstar there were a lot of recapped pages that will have to be edited out.
TO: After this first hardback, DF plans for the next collection will feature the prequel material of "Metamophasis Odyssey" and "The Price", and then there will be a retrospective of your career. Will you be selecting the pieces that will appear in the retrospective?
JS: Yes, though it's going to be hard to chose and finding the time to do it will be tough. I always sort of thought of the "Art of—" books were something that happened after the artist was dead, but...
TO: If response is strong enough, could you envision developing new adventures involving the Dreadstar universe?
JS: Yes, but I have a project I've penciled three issues of, called Kid Kosmos, that I desperately want to do first. I'm still working on finding a publisher for it. Until then I'm planning on sticking with Thanos. But I do have this story idea kicking around about a seasoned Dreadstar, dealing with coming to the end of his own days, long after most everyone he's ever known is gone.
TO: Nick Barrucci, DF president, is clearly a major fan of your work. Did he contact you about re-releasing Dreadstar? How did this business arrangement come about?
JS: Nick contacted my lawyer, Harris Miller, and the two of them pretty well had everything arranged before I ever became involved. Their plans, overall, sounded great to me so after a couple of nicks and tucks on my part we were ready to go. I've always been impressed by the quality of everything I've seen DF produce so I was overjoyed when Nick took an interest in reproducing Dreadstar.
TO: I was wondering, how long did it take you (and how challenging was it) to draw the dizzying number of characters (nearly every Marvel character it seemed) that appeared on the cover of the first issue of Marvel's The End (which DF also produced as a Marvel Universe: The End Canvas Giclee)?
JS: The biggest challenge to drawing all those characters was getting reference on their current outfits. The X-Men in particular seem to change their uniforms every six issues or so. It was even more of a nightmare for the colorists (Christie Scheele and Heroic Age) Fortunately for me, this was a project Marvel approached me about and so I didn't have to go to every editor up at Marvel and beg to use their characters in the story as I've had to do on the past Infinity stories.
TO: Is there anything you'd like to discuss that I did not ask?
JS: Not that I can think of. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get this interview back to you but over the years I've become sort of a boat fanatic, traveling up and down the Hudson River and fixing up old derelicts. Finally decided to buy a new one and was bringing it back from Lake Champlain. As you might know the East Coast has been getting nothing but lousy weather this last week and a half and so our cruise home was one thunder storm after another. Took us a wee bit longer than planned. But all went well and not too many folks drowned along the way.
