The membership of the studio changed over time,[2] eventually adding James Sherman, Frank Miller, and Gary Hallgren as previous members left.
In addition, while at Upstart, Chaykin and Simonson created a series of humorous one-pagers for Heavy Metal magazine called Shakespeare for Americans.
Chaykin and Simonson had known each other since the early 1970s, at one point living in the same Queens apartment building (along with Allen Milgrom and Bernie Wrightson.
[1] Peter Kuper, still in art school at the time, worked at Upstart as Chaykin's assistant on various projects from 1979 to 1981.
[4][5] Mayerik left New York in 1980 (moving to Ohio); he was replaced at Upstart by James Sherman.
[6] (According to Simonson, he and Chaykin knew Sherman from their shared past association with Neal Adams' Continuity Studios.
)[1] Shortly afterward, Starlin left the city to move upstate;[6] his space was taken by Frank Miller.
[1] Chaykin and Simonson produced nine Shakespeare for Americans strips for Heavy Metal over the period of October 1981 to September 1982.
[7] Chaykin's former assistant Peter Kuper created a Shakespeare for American strip for Heavy Metal's July 1982 issue.
[1] In the mid-1980s, while still in high school and shortly thereafter, Dean Haspiel worked at Upstart as an assistant for Chaykin on American Flagg!
(He had earlier worked as an assistant at a neighboring studio on the same floor for Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants and Elektra: Assassin.
)[9] The studio was visited at various times by a number of other comics professionals as well as those who would later work in the industry, including Arthur Adams, Kyle Baker, Bret Blevins, Richard Case, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Peter B. Gillis, Joe Chiodo, Jackson Guice, Joe Jusko, José Marzan Jr., Mike Mignola, Josh Neufeld, Peter Sanderson, David Scroggy, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dwayne Turner, Lynn Varley, and Bill Wray.
[6] He eventually converted the space into a residence, thus officially drawing the Upstart Associates era to a close.
[4]Similarly, Dean Haspiel described his tenure as an assistant at Upstart as "a year-long crash course that expanded my comix making tools exponentially and became an experience I will forever cherish.