Well, this certainly seems like the start of something. As Rich Johnston points out, Jim Starlin shares an early image of Thanos on Facebook, and goes out of his way to point out (twice) that the character existed before he went to Marvel:
This is probably one of the first concept drawings of Thanos I ever did, long before I started working at Marvel. Jack Kirby’s Metron is clearly the more dominant influence in this character’s look. Not Darkseid. Both D and T started off much smaller than they eventually became. This was one of the drawings I had in my portfolio when I was hired by Marvel. It was later inked by Rich Buckler.
Legal Eagles, does this mean that Starlin has a claim to ownership (or part-ownership) of the character? He clearly wasn’t created as work for hire. And if so, what could this mean for Marvel’s future plans for the character within Avengers movies and the comic Marvel Universe…?
July 3rd, 2012 at 11:29 am
I don’t understand how it could be before he brought the character to Marvel when Iron Man is in the image.
July 3rd, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Put Jim Starlin on a Marvel Now title. You have a Day 1 paying customer.
July 3rd, 2012 at 4:57 pm
“I don’t understand how it could be before he brought the character to Marvel when Iron Man is in the image.”
Um, you don’t have to work for Marvel in order to draw Marvel characters, you know.
Since it sounds like the sequence of events was (1) Starlin drew Thanos in pencil, (2) Starlin was hired by Marvel, and (3) Rich Buckler inked the earlier drawing, another possibility is that Iron Man wasn’t in the original pencil drawing but was added later before inking.
July 3rd, 2012 at 7:54 pm
I get that you don’t have to work for Marvel to have drawn Iron Man, but it seems a odd coincidence since that title is where Thanos debuted.
July 14th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
There are similarities in the drawing, but nothing definitive enough in my opinion.