NOTE: A few months back, (okay, a lot of months back), I got the chance to catch up with cosmic guru Jim Starlin about his foray into the intergalactic, Mystery in Space. Through a not dis-series of flubs, that article was never published as intended either. Still, it'd be a damn shame to waste a conversation about comics, though, so here it is; represented for the first time.
Jim Starlin has been telling grand cosmic stories for over thirty years. He has told Weird stories, stories that reach into Infinity, and even killed a Robin. It was no surprise when he lent his hand to tell a Mystery in Space. The project was originally slated to be an Adam Strange story, but when the character became unavailable due to usage in 52, Starlin adjusted. He dusted off the forgotten Captain Comet, and set out to revitalize the character. He dropped the “Captain,” (because hey, that character never truly earned his standing as a captain), and started the story in the most unlikely way by killing the main character. Death was just the beginning.
With the release of the Mystery in Space collection, we took the opportunity to catch up with Jim, and get his thoughts on the series.
Brendan: What is it about the grand cosmic scale that attracts you? You have such an open tapestry, does that few degrees of normalcy you remove the audience from make it more difficult to tell a human story?
Jim Starlin: Sometimes it's better to write around an idea, rather than hit it on the head with a hammer.
Brendan: You got a chance to revisit Hardcore Station, as well as the Weird. What was it like to return to characters you created? Was there a different voice you had to adopt, given your distance from the characters?
Jim: Hardcore Station was a locale just crying out to be utilized. As you know, Mystery in Space was originally intended to be an Adam Strange vehicle. In the end, I believe, it played out better this way. Hardcore worked well as a substitute for Rann. Max and Eye were just frosting on the cake.
The Weird was another matter entirely. I'd been lobbying to bring him back and had a fairly good idea where I wanted him to go. His rather tenuous relationship with life and death gives him a half-a-bubble-off-plum quality I was looking forward to writing.
Brendan: What were your thoughts on Shane Davis, and his work on the series? How did you feel Ron Lim did as a "closer" for the series?
Jim: Shane gave the Comet series a wonderfully dark attitude and set the tone for Tyrone marvelously. When we started off, the contrast between his art and my own set a nice space between the lead feature and the back up. They were linked, but both series stood clearly apart. Though it was never planned, Ron Lim's entrance into the project couldn't have worked out better. As the story reached its climax and merged into one tale, Ron's emulating Shane's style bought the Comet series closer to the Weird's visual path. The final issue may not have worked out as well as it did without Ron at the art helm.
Brendan: This book offered the rare opportunity to dovetail backup stories into your lead. How did you approach that structurally, and do you feel like it worked out?
Jim: I'm very proud of Mystery In Space's story structure. It gave me the chance to travel the same path in two very different fashions. Comet was straight-up storytelling. The Weird was experimental freedom. I think the two styles dovetailed into each other quite well. I've an up-coming project which involves both Comet and the Weird, plus Adam Strange. I'm greatly looking forward to playing with the storytelling on it also.
Brendan: The backups also afforded you the opportunity to draw your own part of the book. Eventually when these stories intertwined, you even collaborated on some pages. Did you enjoy that opportunity to jam with other artists?
Jim: It's wasn't quite the collaboration you'd think it would have been. By the time Shane started drawing the first issue of the Comet story I was in the middle of writing and drawing the fourth or fifth installment of The Weird. Right from the start, poor Shane had me bugging him for character designs on characters that were to first appear in his storyline. It all got rather confusing at times. Plus, when Ron finally got to drawing his part of the last issue I was already deep into The Death of the New Gods. Had to pull myself out of that head space and come back to a project I'd finished with months earlier. But in the end it all worked out quite well. Guess the Force was with us.
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