(above) Pencils by James P. Starlin *sorry for the lightness. I didn't scan the original pencil art and the photocopy wasn't able to get a dark image since Jim's pencils were very light. I darkened this file a LOT in Photoshop.
Jim Starlin
As mentioned in the Adam Hughes 'Mary Marvel' entry, Jim Starlin is another one of my 'holy grail' artists to ink. Not only was I a huge fan since the late '70s when I discovered him, but anyone who's read my bio, contributers page, or several interviews knows that Jim is the direct reason that I was able to break in as a professional in '92 (Bernie Wrightson indirectly since it was through his kindness that we met). My first pro work as a creator was WARLOCK & THE INFINITY WATCH # 5 inking over Angel Medina and, lo & behold, written by Jim. I longed over the years for a chance to ink him but it didn't happen until my client Damon was able to commission him and, lucky for me, we know where Damon's jobs go to be inked:-) Jim's pencils only had the Black Racer character with no background so I added the starscape. My 29th commission for the client, I inked it in brush, brush marker, marker, zip, china marker/crayon, razor blade, and white paint spatter. I considered doing the stars by hand as clusters like Jim or his regular inkers would have but being that Jim drew the figure not expecting a background he had parts of the body in shadow that would be adjacent to the black of space and I didn't want to just add halos to separate them so I decided to do the stars with ink spatter like I normally would since that approach would solve my dilemma better than Jim's would have in my opinion. This 11 X 17 commission was finished on 6/25/05. Special thanks to Damon & Bob Shaw for making this happen.