Literature / Visual art
Jim Starlin
born 1949 · comics writer and artist
Detroit-born comics artist and writer who created Thanos, Gamora and Drax and wrote The Infinity Gauntlet, the source of Marvel's biggest film saga.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 76- Birth name
- James P. Starlin
- Detroit years
- 1949–late 1960s
- Field
- Literature, Visual art
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Starlin was born in Detroit in 1949 and grew up in the city, where he drew obsessively and took part in the lively Detroit comics fan scene of the 1960s before serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He broke into Marvel Comics in the early 1970s and, in an Iron Man issue of 1973, introduced Thanos, the death-worshipping Titan who became the linchpin of Marvel's cosmic stories. His runs on Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, the creation of Drax the Destroyer, Gamora and Shang-Chi, the 1991 miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and, at DC, the Batman storyline A Death in the Family made him one of the most influential creators of his generation. Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame films drew directly on his work.
Highlights
- Created Thanos (1973), Drax and Gamora; co-created Shang-Chi
- Wrote The Infinity Gauntlet (1991)
- Wrote Batman: A Death in the Family (1988)
- Created the creator-owned space opera Dreadstar