'The Art of Jim Starlin: A Life in Words and Pictures' by Jim Starlin with Joe Pruett and Mike Marts is an overview of art interspersed with the story of a fantastic talent from 35+ years in comics.

Jim Starlin knew he wanted to be a cartoonist from an early age. He practiced his art while he was in the Navy. Eventually he was discovered by Marvel and his career took off. He had a way of revamping characters in titles that were failing like Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock. Along the way, he created the villain Thanos. He wrote the Infinity Gauntlet that the current series of Avengers movies is based on. He had his own comics and books. There were clashes with management and editors and corporations.

Mr. Starlin apologizes up front about being surly about his experiences, but I didn't feel he was at all. If anything, his stories and the easy way talks about his life feels like sitting down for a drink with an old friend. I've been a fan of his work for years and have read many of the stories he has written and illustrated. This was really a lot of fun to read.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Aftershock Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

I have to say, I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I expected to just flip through and admire the art. However, I found the autobiographical piece enthralling as well. Starlin has been in the industry for 40 years and had some interesting stories. Interspersed were little gems like what it was like to work on the Punisher.

Marvel had a few odd writing rules when it came to the Punisher. I was told right off, "If the Punisher appears in a panel with another character. other than his assistant, that person should be killed within the next few pages by either the Punisher or someone else. If the Punisher appears with any object, it should be destroyed in an explosion as soon as possible."

Starlin is known mostly for working on Marvel's cosmic characters. He created Thanos and Drax, killed off Captain Marvel, is synonymous with Adam Warlock, and wrote the Infinity Gauntlet story Avengers: Infinity War is based on.. In addition, he killed off Robin after fans famously determined Jason Todd's fate. Also included in the book is a lot of his creator owned scifi and fantasy work.

I love Jim Starlin's art and his work. I have been a fan for many years. This book is a great opportuniity to read up on one of your heroes, or to check out why I am such a fan, and join our ranks. : )

Public libraries, comics fans, and others will want to have a copy of this, especially those who are excited about the new Avengers movie coming out this spring. Jim Starlin was Marvel's master of cosmic comics, the man who wrote and illustrated titles like Warlock, Dreadstar, and many more. I was surprised how much of the book was familiar to me; there seems to be rather more of a focus on his Marvel work than some of his later material, but to be fair, that's probably what a lot of fans will want to see.

The book is extensively illustrated in both colour and black and white, and there's some text by Starlin talking candidly about the development of his work and his comings and goings to and from various publishers. But his artwork is the star of the show, and this PDF suggests the printed book is going to look great.

Once you're done watching Avengers: Infinity War, read this book to see where a lot of those ideas came from. Then use it as the basis of your graphic novel reading list.

I assume this has been revised and tweaked since coming out as an ultra-collectible in 2011. It's a very slight read, and you need to be a connoisseur of comic cover art to get a lot out of the selection of artworks. That said, there are also some wonderful pages and imagery across the whole visual spread represented here, ranging as it does four decades, from three-colour to fully digital. The script by Starlin is chattily autobiographical, and covers all his ups and many downs in the industry. He himself admits to never reading art books, and some will love the fact this is incredibly pictorial, but others may want more grit and narrative nous about his career. On the whole, however, what I could see of the book was very enjoyable – as usual with the Adobe Digital Editions bug that netgalley thinks exists only on the three PCs in our household and nowhere else in the multiverse, a third of the artwork pages became white noise.