TrekInk: Review of Star Trek: The Next Generation – Ghosts Trade Paperback

This week Zander Cannon’s Next Generation tale, Ghosts, is collected and published in trade paperback format by IDW Publishing. It’s a comic that reads like a novel and unreels like an episode of the television series. Minor spoilers in our review ahead. Plus we look at Star Trek trade sales and a blast from the past.

REVIEW: Star Trek: The Next Generation – Ghosts Paperback
written by Zander Cannon, art by Javier Aranda, inks by German Torres-Ruiz and Marc Rueda, colors by John Hunt, letters by Robbie Robbins and Neil Uyetake, edits by Scott Dinbier, collection edits by Justin Eisinger, cover art by Joe Corroney, collection design by Gilberto Lazcano

A diplomatic mission, rival nations engaged in civil war and looking to the Federation for support, a mysterious ship with unexplained tech, leaders disappearing, including Picard, Riker hopping mad, Worf getting knocked around by warriors, Data detecting… I could go on, but the best thing for you to do is pick up a copy of the Ghosts collection and immerse yourself in the latest episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It really does feel like a television episode and it also reads like a novel. In my review of issue #5, I said that Ghosts stands out as quite different from nearly all of the other Star Trek comics IDW has published, and reading Zander Cannon‘s remarkable story again hasn’t changed my mind.

Artist Javier Aranda brings all of the senior crew members to life and adds finely detailed backdrops to Cannon’s Next Generation tale. Inking is handled by two artists, German Torres-Ruiz and Marc Rueda. Their styles are different and the transition is more apparent in the trade than it was for the individual issues, but both inkers get the job done. Together with vibrant colors provided by John Hunt, Ghosts, the trade paperback, is a fine collection.

Joe Corroney provided all five covers for the mini-series and they are collected in a gallery at the tail end of the book. His cover for issue #1 is used for the trade. The other four covers feature unusual perspectives on Picard, Riker and Data. Corroney’s work has become a hallmark feature of IDW’s Star Trek comics. He treats both TOS and TNG characters with the sort of reverence that many of us feel for the characters. Placement of the title, Ghosts, changed a bit from the original solicitation, moving to the left, freeing up Picard’s forehead, which looked a little odd with letters all over it.

Cover: Joe Corroney

You can revisit TrekMovie reviews of the individual issues for more on Ghosts: Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue #3-4, and Issue #5. The bottom line? For Next Generation fans, Ghosts is a must read. For everyone else, pick up a copy and remember what it felt like to watch a new Next Generation episode on the tube.

You can find Star Trek: The Next Generation – Ghosts, the trade paperback, in local comic shops. You can also order Ghosts online from Amazon.

If trade paperbacks aren’t your thing, you can still hunt for individual issues at your local comic shop or online at TFAW.

Star Trek TPB Sales

Curious about Star Trek comics trade paperback sales? No? Too bad, I’m going to tell you about them anyway. The numbers in the chart are the estimated comics sold to North American comic shops as reported by Diamond Comic Distributors thru April 2010. All trades listed are from IDW Publishing except five titles from Tokyopop. Data for some of the early IDW trade paperbacks are unavailable because Diamond only reported sales figures for the top 100 trades. Later on, coverage was expanded to the top 300 trades. Even without the additional hard cover edition sales, Star Trek Countdown was easily the best selling Star Trek tale of recent years. However, Countdown was the only Star Trek title to make it into the top 500 trades published in 2009, coming in at #51. Data from Comics Chronicles, a resource for comics research. The numbers are also available in a spreadsheet.
[NOTE: Data does not include sales from book stores, where most trade paperbacks are sold, but it gives an idea of relative sales]

Blast from the past: early collections

And here’s a blast from Star Trek comics past: an ad on the back cover of Gold Key Star Trek #49 for the first Star Trek trades from Golden Press, published in 1976 and 1977, before everyone was skipping individual issues and buying trades.

Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.