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Comics

Revision as of 19:08, 19 June 2006 by Aholland (talk | contribs) (Correcting the history of the first comic book - off by a century; and added comic strip)
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Gold Key-The Devils Isle of Space

Cover of Gold Key's "The Devils Isle of Space" (Issue #2).

Comics (including comic books and comic strips) are a publication combining story with illustration.

When Malcolm Reed and Trip Tucker were waiting for rescue in their disabled Shuttlepod. Malcolm deridedly told Trip that North Americans must read nothing but comic books. Trip replied that Superman was layered with subtext on top of subtext. (ENT: "Shuttlepod One")

Brief overview of comic history

The first comic strip is usually cited as being The Yellow Kid in 1895 because its artist Richard Outcault was the first to use a balloon-style method of indicating dialouge. However, cartoon drawings in newspapers had already been published since at least 1754 (by Benjamin Franklin, no less), and as early as 1827 by Swiss author Rudolphe Töpffer.

In 1837, "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck" was also published by Rudolphe Töpffer and it is generally considered the earliest known comic book. In the United States the format became extremely popular with the creation of Superman in 1938 by Jerome Siegel and Joe Schuster. Since that time, the comic book industry has grown a great deal, with millions of comics in print every week and read around the globe. DC Comics (named for flagship title Detective Comics) and Marvel Comics are currently the two giants of this medium, and have come to influence other forms of entertainment such as movies, television, children's toys, and even the music industry.

Star Trek comics

Through a licensing process similar to those granted to create collectibles, novels, and games, Paramount Pictures has granted the rights to market Star Trek merchandise of various sorts through a number of different production and design companies, beginning in July 1967 with a series based on Star Trek: The Original Series.

With the success of the Star Trek Movies and Star Trek: The Next Generation, a licensing office associated with the productions took stricter control of the franchise's image. Designers of Star Trek publications were discouraged from creating depictions that varied from the style and details of the franchise, as seen in filmed productions. Previous comics of the 1960s, 70s and early 80s tend to vary from canon more than later series. Since the comics are produced by artists and writers not affiliated with franchise production staff, filmed productions disregard events and situations in them as completely apocryphal.

The Star Trek universe has been displayed in comic book form in many ways throughout its existence. A smaller company called Gold Key Comics first published Star Trek stories, starting in 1967 with a story entitled "K-G, Planet of Death." This company produced 61 Star Trek comic books from 1967 to 1979, which focused on all-original adventures of The Original Series crew of the starship Enterprise.

File:Early1.JPG

Cover of Marvel's "Flesh of my Flesh" (Star Trek: Early Voyages #1).

Since then, many other companies have published different series of Star Trek comic books, including Marvel and DC at multiple intervals. Many are simply adaptations of episodes and movies, while others are brand-new stories involving existing Trek characters, and still others have introduced completely new characters and settings. One of the best examples of the latter is Marvel Comics' series Star Trek: Early Voyages, which featured adventures of Captain Pike's crew on the original Enterprise before Captain Kirk took command.

Canonicity of Star Trek comics

While many comic book runs of the Star Trek Universe have provided interesting story arcs and situations that would be difficult to show on television, all stories are considered to be non-canon.

Gold Key (1967-1979)

Gold Key Comics published 61 issues from July 1967 to February 1979. The comics focused on the USS Enterprise during James T. Kirk's first five-year mission.

Those were reprinted several times :

Marvel Comics v1 (1979-1982)

Marvel Comics took over the franchise in 1979 and published a series of comics based on the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in the 2270s after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Newspaper Comic Strip (1979-1983)

Around the same time as Marvel Comics was publishing its comic books, a newspaper comic strip based on Star Trek appeared. Like the Marvel publications it, too, told of the adventures of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It lasted 4 years and consisted of twenty story arcs.

DC Comics v1 (1984-1988)

DC Comics published series of comics based on TOS, Movies and TNG

Major arcs : "The Mirror Universe Saga" (Issues #9-16, 1984) ; "Who Killed Captain Kirk?" (Issues #5x-55, 1988)

DC Comics v2 (1989-1995)

After stopping the publication in 1988, DC Comics renewed the license in 1989, publishing comics based on TOS (2260s-2280s) and TNG.

Malibu Comics (1993-1995)

Concurrent with DC's license for TOS and TNG comics, Malibu Comics acquired the rights to publish DS9 comics.

Malibu had also apparently obtained rights to produce Voyager comics, but stopped comic production (due to buyout from Marvel) before any issues were released.

Marvel Comics v2 (1995-1998)

Done under the imprint "Marvel Presents Paramount Comics", Marvel had rights to produce comics based on all the existing Star Trek properties at the time.

WildStorm Comics (1999-2001)

DC Comics, through their WildStorm Comics imprint, obtained rights to the Star Trek comics for the third (and to date, final) time. Again published as "Paramount Comics", WildStorm limited their releases to single issues and limited series.

Tokyopop (2006-...)

Tokyopop has announced the publication of a collection of 5 Star Trek manga stories in September 2006. The stories will be based in TOS-era. (Previous announcements had the collection set in TNG era; however, this other volume may be a future release.)

See also

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