Review of ‘Star Trek, a comics history’, by Alan J. Porter (2009)
Publisher: Hermes Press
Image and digital corrections by H + G Media; Louise Geer, Editor; DH, LAG, LG, and ESH proofreading
Printed in China
This 2009 book explores all of the Star Trek comics published up to date, including covers and pages of them. These are the contents of the book:
Foreword: Trek: A Personal Perspective, by Wil Wheaton. A short text from Wil Wheaton speaking about his experience in the Trek community and his involvement as a writer for manga Star Trek.
Introduction: My Life in Trekking. The author recollects his memories about Star Trek and reflect on the reasons that led him to write this book.
Chapter 1: The Gold Key Missions (1967-1979). A series of 62 issues, from which 4 issues are reprints, published by Western Publishing under the Gold Key label.
Chapter 2: British Trek (1969-1973). A series of 247 comics published in weekly magazines, with as little as two pages per issue, grouped in 37 story arcs. Also, eight more stories published in six annual issues, one story in one summer special issue and one story in a strip in Radio Times.
Chapter 3: Records and Promotionals (1975-1979). A series of 6 comic-books adapted from 11 audio stories from Power Records and Peter Pan Records. Also, 10 short comics from running a promotion with McDonald’s.
Chapter 4: Star Trek Newspaper Strip (1979-1983). 22 comic strips launched by the Los Angeles Times newspaper syndicate and published in The Houston Chronicle and other newspapers.
Chapter 5: The First Marvel Missions (1979-1982). 18 issues from Marvel Comics.
Chapter 6: The DC Comics Missions (1984-1995). 265 issues from DC Comics, broken down as:
The Original Series (TOS):
First run: A series of 56 issues, plus three annual issues, plus special issues for Star Trek films III, IV and V.
Second run: A series of 80 issues, plus six annual issues, plus three special issues, plus special issue for Star Trek film VI (mistakenly described as IV), plus Debt of Honor graphic novel, plus The Ashes of Eden novel adaptation.
The Next Generation (TNG):
First run: A series of 6 issues.
Second run: A series of 76 issues, plus six annual issues, plus three special issues, plus All Good Things special issue, plus Generations special issue, plus two four-issue miniseries Shadowheart and Ill Wind.
Both TOS and TNG: The Modala Imperative miniseries. Two miniseries of 4 issues each, the first starring the crew from TOS and the second starring the crew from TNG.
Both TNG and Deep Space Nine (DS9): Prophets and losses. Miniseries of 4 issues, issues 1 and 4 published by DC and issues 2 and 3 published by Malibu Comics.
Chapter 7: The Malibu Comics Missions (1993-1994). 49 issues from Malibu Comics, broken down as:
DS9: 32 issues, 4-issue miniseries Hearts and minds, 3-issue miniseries The maquis: soldier of peace, 2 issues from Celebrity series, 1 annual issue, 1 ultimate annual issue, and the peculiarly numbered and ordered special issues: #0 (1995, January), #1 (1994, December), #1 (1995, August) and Worf special #0.
Both TNG and DS9: Prophets and losses. Miniseries of 4 issues, issues 1 and 4 published by DC and issues 2 and 3 published by Malibu Comics.
Chapter 8: The Second Marvel Missions (1995-1998): 92 issues, broken down as:
Early Voyages, set onboard the original Enterprise before Kirk: 17 issues.
Unlimited: 10 issues mixing TOS, TNG and DS9.
Untold Voyages, set between Star Trek films I and II: 5 issues.
Star Trek/X-Men: 2 issues.
TOS: Single issue Fragile Glass.
TNG: Special issue for Star Trek: First Contact, single issue Operation Assimilation, single issue Reality’s End, special Riker issue.
DS9: 15 issues.
Starfleet Academy: 19 issues.
Voyager: 15 issues.
Splashdown: 4 issues.
Chapter 9: The Wildstorm Missions (1999-2001). 34 comics from Wildstorm Studio, broken down as:
TOS: 4 issues.
TNG: 4-issue miniseries Perchance to Dream, 4-issue The Killing Shadows, 6 other issues.
TNG & DS9: Divided We Fall 4-issue miniseries.
DS9: 4-issue N-vector miniseries, 1 special issue.
Voyager (VOY): 3-issue miniseries Planet Killer, 3 other issues, 1 special issue.
Chapter 10: The Tokyopop Missions (2006-2008). 3 issues from Tokyopop Comics, all starring the TOS crew..
Chapter 11: The Continuing Missions (2008-onwards). Very short text talking about the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic-book series, failing to name a single issue.
Chapter 12: Creating Trek: The Interviews. The authors poses ten questions to nineteen trekkers: Dan Abnett, Mike W. Barr, Paul Benjamin, Christine Boylan, Mike Carlin, Mike Collins, Gerry Conway, Chris Dows, Ian Edgington, Alan Dean Foster, Bob Greenberger, Gordon Purcell, Andy Schmidt, Paul Storrie, Ty Templeton, Scott Tipton, Rob Tokar, Howard Weinstein and Marv Wolfman. Some of them provide very interesting insight.
Chapter 13: Collecting Star Trek Comics. Basic information about second-hand comic-book market.
The text seems to have not been revised. There is a number of mistypes – for instance, issue #21 mistyped as issue #2, 'fools' mistyped as 'tools' or 'you' mistyped as 'yiou'. Chapter 11 is named 'The Continuing MIssions', with a mistakenly capitalized i.
The chapters contain the details for all comic stories including the synopsis. Besides, they contain information about the reprints made, and many images from covers and pages. This means that 80% of the text is raw data, making it a data book.
This is a book meant for consultation, not for reading – even if you are a trekker, you would want to read the comics, not their synopsis. This book is meant for collectors, Trek scholars, or die-hard fans that want anything Trek. In that, it succeeds in providing an exhaustive relation of Star Trek comics, their storylines, and the names of the people who created them.
Comments
Post a Comment