The Art Of Jim Starlin - A Life In Words And Pictures
(2010 - Desperado (imprint of IDW))

IDW/Desperado released this first, and then a later edition saw light from (this book's editor) Joe Pruett's publishing-house of creator-owned properties, AfterShock Comics. The book seems about 25% too hefty to be easily 'handle-able', but I'd have to admit that was because of all the art stuffed within. Of the book's 328 pages, 166 of them sport featured large-reproductions of covers & splash-pages, and then another 98 fill their pages with two-or-more singular images. 38 more pages are devoted to sheets of the artist's sequential-art that display his skills in this visual storytelling realm (some of those completely exhibiting his Amber stories, not to mention the even more sheets that share their space with this book's text). Being known for his writing as well, some of the counted 'well-presented' art-reproductions are by Starlin collaborators, namely: Jim Aparo, Ron Lim, George Pérez*, and Bernie Wrightson (4). With the exception of the two-page Foreward, all the text is by the artist himself, relating many behind-the-scenes struggles that resulted in the comics he produced (or ended his participation in them . . .). Everything is laid out in roughly chronological order, with the chapter titles: Getting Started, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Death Of Captain Marvel, Dreadstar, Among Madmen And Other Novels, Batman And Other DC Comics, Silver Surfer/Infinity Gauntlet, Breed, Thanos Again, Kid Kosmos, Mysteries In Space, Short Stories, and finally an Epilogue, where Starlin shares how he moves forward, not having to be mired in the creative bog for which he is so well known.