Barta's first comics work came in June 1982, when he helped
Marvel inkers
Al Milgrom,
Joe Sinnott and
Sal Trapani provide inks for the pencils of
Don Perlin on
The Defenders #108. He inked #115 solo and then inked
Dave Cockrum's artwork for a backup feature to the
Giant Size X-Men #1-reprint
X-Men Special Edition #1 in February 1983.
Marvel and First Barta was the regular inker for most of the first 10 issues of
John Byrne's
The Thing during 1983–84, during-and-after which he moved from Marvel to
First Comics to ink a couple of stories for their
Warp comic (including some of the earliest work from
Bill Willingham). Other inking work for First slowly saw Barta graduate from inks to pencils over a dozen issues of the
John Ostrander-written
Starslayer, while he also inked a couple of issues of
Howard Chaykin's
American Flagg! and drew back-ups for
Mike Baron's
Nexus. Barta also co-wrote and drew a number of stories for ''Munden's Bar
, the back-up feature in Grimjack''.
Eclipse and Plastic Man Towards the end of 1986, Barta inked a couple of comics for
Eclipse, including an issue of
Airboy (#11), before heading back to Marvel to ink
Power Pack and various issues of other titles for Eclipse, Marvel and First, notable among them Marvel's adaptation of the horror film
House II: The Second Story (Oct 1987). Late 1988 saw Barta launch two series - Marvel's
What The--?! and DC's 4-issue mini-series revival of
Jack Cole's
Plastic Man, on both as penciler rather than inker. His work has a distinctive cartoon-like feel, erring on the surreal and exaggerated side more than the often-realistic work found in other superhero comics. As a result, Barta's art style is very well suited to humor, and it is no surprise that his major non-inking art credits are on humor titles.
What Th--?! and Urban Legends In 1989, Barta returned mostly to inking duties on Marvel's
Alpha Flight and
Power Pack, but was also one of several pencillers in their
Marvel: Year in Review - 1989 (1990), alongside
Bryan Hitch,
Dale Keown,
Bob McLeod,
Mike Mignola,
Herb Trimpe and
Lee Weeks. From April to October 1990, he inked
Rob Liefeld's art on
Louise Simonson's
The New Mutants, and over the next couple of years flitted between companies as penciller and inker, as well as writer and cover artist (in particular on
What The--?!). In 1993, Barta co-wrote (with Doug Rice) and drew
Stupid #1 for Image comics. He wrote, penciled, inked and lettered "The Winning Ticket" in
Dark Horse Comics' June 1993 offering
Urban Legends, and also contributed "The Wonder of Gas" to DC/
Paradox Press's
Big Book of Urban Legends in 1994. He inked for
Malibu Comics and
Image Comics (including Image-branded issues of
Jim Lee's
WildStorm title
StormWatch) and provided stories for further volumes of
Paradox Press'
Big Book of series in 1996/7/8.
Elseworlds & America's Best Also in 1998, he inked penciller
Kieron Dwyer's artwork on two
Elseworlds titles, both written by
John Francis Moore: ''Elseworld's Finest
#1-2 (set in the 1920s) and Superman: The Dark Side'' #1-3 (Superman as raised on
Apokolips by
Darkseid). In March 2000 he fully illustrated the first of several
Splash Brannigan story in
Alan Moore's
America's Best Comics anthology title
Tomorrow Stories, and later contributed to Moore's
Tom Strong #14 and the
ABC Sketchbook (Dec 2001). Around this time, Barta also wrote and/or illustrated short stories for
Bongo Comics'
Simpsons Comics and
Treehouse of Horror titles, before moving back largely to inking duties for
Rick Remender and
Dark Horse Comics on
Bruce Campbell's
The Man with the Screaming Brain.
Current work June 2006 saw him work with Remender again, writing back-ups for the latter's
Fear Agent comic, and since then he has mostly contributed in various ways to the many different
Simpsons titles. He also inked for
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics/magazines for
Mirage Comics and
Titan Magazines. In 2009, he illustrated the
Loathsome Lore feature in
Creepy #1 for the book's revival at Dark Horse Comics, and in the fourth issue drew "Zombie Wedding at Slaughter Swamp", written by longtime comics writer Nicola Cuti. In 2011 Barta began drawing a series of stories for
SpongeBob Comics. ==Bibliography==