Richard Starkings

Starkings' lettering style was originally inspired by British comic strip letterers Bill Nuttall and Tom Frame. Starkings' UK career began with lettering jobs in 2000 AD's Future Shocks and various strips in Warrior. From there he moved to Marvel UK where he lettered Zoids in Spider-Man Weekly and Transformers before becoming an editor for the company in the late 1980s. Titles he edited included Death's Head and Dragon's Claws. However, by the beginning of the 1990s he devoted himself exclusively to lettering, finding work in the much larger comic-book industry in the United States.

His work in the Whoniverse has been mostly confined to two periods. He was variously a writer, editor and letterer during the Sixth and early Seventh Doctors' eras in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. At this time, he also served in the staff position of "picture consultant" for a number of issues. Two decades later, he returned to the newly created American centre of Whoniverse publishing at IDW Publishing, working on several issues involving the Tenth Doctor.

In the 20th century

Starkings edited Redemption!, Culture Shock!, Nemesis of the Daleks and Follow That TARDIS!. Usually under his pseudonym of Richard Alan or Zed, he wrote or co-wrote Time and Tide, the aforementioned Nemesis of the Daleks and Up Above the Gods. He lettered or co-lettered Frobisher's Story, The Gift, The World Shapers and Up Above the Gods.