 His 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.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).