I took the liberty of pulling up a chronological list of Starlin's work:
https://www.comics.org/penciller/name/jim%20starlin/sort/chrono/I'd forgotten about the "Dr Weird" stories Starlin did for several years across several amateur fanzines, before he turned pro in 1972. Without knowing it, I purchased 3 of the 4 issues in October 1972 that published Starlin's first pro work.
An uncredited 2-page story called "The Spell" in HOUSE OF MYSTERY 207.
And a beautiful 6-page story inked by Mike Ploog in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 1. And a Starlin-pencilled cover on X-MEN 78.
The first two of which are among my favorites, for the other anthology material in those issues. HOUSE OF MYSTERY 207 has both a beautiful Wrightson cover and an equally beautiful splash page, an innovative and very detailed story by an artist named William Payne who regrettably did very little work in comics (about 30 anthology stories, mostly for DC), the Starlin 2-pager, and "This Evil Demon Loves People" by Sheldon Mayer and Jack Sparling that as a 9 year old kid I found particularly creepy.
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY 1 starts with a Robert E. Howard adaptation by Thomas/Gil Kane/Palmer, "Dig Me No Grave", and "House" by Englehart/Reese, and concluding with the Skeates/Starlin/Ploog story.
The X-MEN 78 issue I realized after the fact I had picked up back then too. While it wasn't one of my favorites, I still enjoyed it. It was a reprint book with a new Starlin/Tuska/Giacoia cover, back at a time when not many really cared who the X-Men were.
It's amazing to me that Starlin just five months later took over CAPTAIN MARVEL with issue 25 in March 1973, at which point he instantly became one of Marvel's star artists. The first few issues were co-scripted with Mike Friedrich, but it quickly became clear Starlin could sail the ship on his own.
