The folks at IDW Publishing have been busy. First up we have previews of the comics coming next February. Plus IDW is running a cover contest, reprinting Star Trek comics in print and digital formats, and jumping onto new personal entertainment devices. A roundup of all the Star Trek comics news that’s fit to post and more, after the break.
PREVIEW: February Star Trek comics
IDW has just released their solicitations for February comics, including 3 Star Trek titles. Here are the previews.
Star Trek #6
Written by Mike Johnson, art by Joe Corroney, cover by Tim Bradstreet
It’s the stunning conclusion of OPERATION: ANNIHILATE! The events of the new timeline unfold in shocking ways as Kirk reunites with his estranged brother to save a colony from extinction. STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci oversees this story that continues the lead-up to the much-anticipated film sequel!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99*Variant covers:
Variant Tim Bradstreet sketch cover!
Variant photo cover!
Star Trek/Legion of Superheroes #5 (of 6)
Written by Chris Roberson, Art by Jeffrey Moy & Philip Moy, covers by Phil Jimenez, Mike Allred
In the distant past, one team of Legionnaires and Starfleet officers come face to face with the force that erased both of their timelines from existence, while in the altered 23rd century another team confronts the latter-day version of that same force. But now that they know how history was changed, can anything be done to set things right?
*Variant covers:
Variant Mario Alberti cover!
Star Trek Classics, Vol. 2: Enemy Unseen
[224 page Trade Paperback: $21.99]
Writers: Keith R.A. DeCandido, Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, and Scott Ciencin, Art by Peter Pachoumis, Scott Benefiel, Dave Hoover, and Andrew Currie, Cover by Drew Stuzan
In a long and distinguished career, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew have faced uncounted foes and vanquished incredible dangers. But what happens when the ememy can’t be easily seen–when it lurks in the shadows, disguises itself as polite society, or emerges from the depths of one’s own mind? These are the antagonists with which the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise must contend in this volume, the most dangerous kind of enemy–the enemy unseen. Contains the three stories "Perchance to Dream,” "Embrace the Wolf,” and "The Killing Shadows.”
OUT THIS WEEK: Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular
This collection reprints a quartet of stories offering an introduction to the IDW universe of Star Trek. The first three are stand-alone stories, while the fourth is the first chapter of a mini-series:
- Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Vol. 1: Romulans
Written and drawn by John Byrne, colors by Leonard O’Grady, letters by Neil Uyetake - Star Trek: Alien Spotlight Vol. 2: Tribbles
Written by Stuart Moore, art by Mike Hawthorne, colors by Mike Hawthorne and James Brown, letters by Richard Starkings - Star Trek: Captain’s Log – Sulu
Written by Scott and David Tipton, art by Federica Manfredi, colors by Andrea Priorini, color assist by Chiara Cinabro, letters by Neil Uyetake - Star Trek: Mission’s End #1
Written by Ty Templeton, art by Stephen Molnar, colors by John Hunt, letters by Neil Uyetake
TrekMovie’s Alex Fletcher reviewed each of the comics in this collection. You can revisit his reviews at these links: Romulans, Tribbles, Sulu, and Mission’s End #1
IDW posted a preview of Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular at issuu.com. The cover art by Joe Corroney features the big three of the original series.
Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular cover art by Joe Corroney (click to enlarge)
IDW Star Trek comics contest
You can Be a Redshirt. Earlier this month IDW announced a contest. The redshirt grand prize winner, protecting his or her favorite comics retailer, will appear on a limited edition variant cover of Star Trek Ongoing #5 drawn by the Sharp Brothers (Rob and Joe). The winning fan will receive 100 copies of the comic and the original cover art, with another 100 copies going to the retailer. See the press release for contest details. The contest closes Friday, December 9, 2011.
Star Trek Ongoing #5 cover contest art by the Sharp Brothers (click to enlarge)
OUT THIS WEEK: Digital Star Trek comics this week
This week, IDW released digital reprints of more than 70 Star Trek comics at comiXology. You can search all new releases at comoXology. IDW is publishing new comics in digital format, at or near, the same time as print. The most recent current comics, Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #2 and Star Trek Ongoing #2, are both available in digital format. New digital comics are initially priced the same as print, $3.99, but after four weeks the price drops to $1.99. Keep an eye on IDW News or ComicsPlus for announcements about new digital comics. How do you read IDW’s digital comics? There’s more than one app for that if you have an iPad/iPhone/iPod touch or other personal electronic device. More on other devices in a moment.
IDW Comics (click for app info at iTunes)
Comics by ComiXology (click for app info at iTunes)
NEW COLLECTIONS COMING: The latest and forthcoming Star Trek collections
For those of you who don’t like to buy individual issues of IDW’s Star Trek comics, everything is collected and reprinted, sometimes more than once. A boxed set of IDW’s Star Trek movie-related comics was published this month. The set contains three previously released trade paperbacks: Countdown, Nero, and Star Trek: Movie Adaptation. Later this year, IDW will publish a hardcover collection of their Transformers/G.I. Joe/Ghostbusters/Star Trek crossover extravaganza, Infestation, previously released in two trade paperbacks. This infestation will contains 22 pages of never before printed material, previously only available as a Pocket Gods digital download. So there! And Pocket God fans everywhere go wild.
Curiously, early in 2012, IDW will reprint some Star Trek: The Next Generation stories, originally published by Wildstorm, as Star Trek Classics. First up is The Gorn Crisis by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta with art by Igor Kordey, which tells the tale of a Next Generation encounter with the Gorn during the Dominion War. This graphic novel was previously published in hardcover and trade paperback. Enemy Unseen reprints a trade paperback collection of three Wildstorm comics, Perchance to Dream, Embrace the Wolf, and The Killing Shadows. If you missed them the first time around, you have a second chance. No, wait, is this the third chance? Maybe it’s the fourth. I’ve lost count.
And of course, the first trade paperback collection of the new ongoing Star Trek series will appear some time in 2012.
Star Trek comics on new electronic devices
The Kindle Fire is out in the wild. This small format tablet from Amazon is designed for consuming entertainment media of all types, including comics. Last week, ComiXology announced that their comics app will be available as one of the free apps on Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Click on the Kindle to see the press release.
ComiXology on Kindle Fire
Last week, IDW announced the availablity of graphic novels for the newly launched Kobo Vox eReader. The initial lineup of digital publications includes Star Trek: Movie Adaptation. Click on the Kobo Vox to see the press release.
IDW graphic novels on Kobo Vox eReader
Star Trek comics on ancient plastic devices
Last and far from least, here’s something for TrekMovie’s iPhone/iPad/Kindle/Nook/Kobo/[Your favorite device goes here] fangirls and fanboys. I thought I’d seen it all, with respect to Star Trek comics, but I was wrong. I recently stumbled across this two-year old article at James Sawyer’s A Piece of the Action, about a forty-year old personal entertainment device for reading Star Trek comics. The Star Trek Movie Viewer, sold by the ChemToy Corporation, is a plastic hand-held device for viewing 16mm filmstrips. The viewer was patented in 1935 and manufactured by Acme, has no multi-megapixel camera, no speaker, no headphone jack, no RAM, no SIM card, no 3G, no 4LTE, no Wi-Fi, no personal assistant, and no apps, but it comes with two black&white 16mm filmstrips reprinting the first Gold Key Star Trek comic, The Planet of No Return. Who knew entertainment could be so simple? Other filmstrips published for the same viewer featured the Lone Ranger, Dick Tracy, Hopalong Cassidy, Bonanza, The Three Stooges, Superman, and Land of the Giants.
Star Trek Movie Viewer blister pack, front and back (click to enlarge)
No! Not the guinea pigs! (A single frame from one of the 16mm filmstrips)
And that’s all for now.
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.
I wonder how long those films lasted from constant loading and unloading…
Picture book!
Just got the movie universe box set. Will start those books this weekend. :]
TPB of ‘Ongoing Vol 1 will contain issues 1-5?
is anyone waiting for the TPBs of Ongoing?
i want to, and then have then in however many volumes there will be (5 or 6?) but its going to be tough waiting
No new TOS comics? DS9? TNG?
I guess I am done with IDW then.
Too bad; they were doing great work up unitl they started rakling old episodes over the JJ Abrams coals.
I might be more interested if IDW treated their Omnibus program with as much care and attention to detail as Dark Horse has done with Star Wars. It seems like they just randomly picked things to collect and they were in no discernible order… (TMP-era comics, THEN Early Voyages?)
I like some of the comics they’ve done, but come on guys, let’s at least start doing something other than hoping that TOS will be enough.
I am very happy with the Star Trek Ongoing series so far. I loved that the first two dealt with Gary Mitchell and Delta Vega. #5 and 6 deal with Operation Annihilate. I am curious as to how this leads into the next movie. Just as much fun as the Star Trek Countdown series. Filling the void with fun until the next movie.
What a jump from the second pilot to The Galieo Seven to Operation: Annihilate. Thats like skipping every 15 episodes…There a bunch of stories they just missed…
Do the Star Trek Ongoing series of comics have international distribution?
I’m new to comics, drawn in by the new ST Ongoing series. Never found any comic art eye-catching until eyeballing the February Operation Annihilate cover — Wow, wow, wow!
@9: Good question. Why not check-out the IDW website? If nothing else, maybe you can order the Ongoing collection, slated to come out sometime this year – might be the best way to go, to avoid prohibitive shipping costs. Good luck.
@8: Considering that these comics are to offer clues as to what’s to come in the next film, I suppose they’re picking their episodes carefully – and, perhaps by considering the episodes they choose, we’ll be able to make some educated guesses about what’s to come – probably overly optimistic. Maybe they’ve just decided to focus no the most popular episodes.
I wonder if this is they’re way of building up to the next movie being an alternate version of Space Seed?
I for one can’t wait to see what they with the Mirror Mirror. The Terran Empire is always an adventure.
I love seeing new trade paperbacks released but why are they bothering reprinting other trades already released?
Who will buy them, all the fans, like me who care about star trek comics & trades have already bought them!
I guess they will complain later that they didn’t sell becaus there is no fan interest & stop producing them.
Idiocy.
Give us something we want & need like the 80’s comics collected- either as trades or omnibus- the early next gen & 90’s trek comics- the annuals oe specials or maybe the final Gold Key issues checker didn’t get to or perhaps even produce something new?
get the rights to enterprise or do some original stories in the JJ-verse
Love the bit on the star trek comic “viewer” I remember View-Masters lol
I haven’t read any of these yet but from the description it sounds like Sam Kirk survives. This supports my theory that he could be in the movie.
I just realized that if they are doing three episodes from each season, then the series would end in February 2013. Which unfortunately puts the release of the movie somewhere in 2013 as well.
@17 – they plan to do some original stories too so that could bring it up to summer 2013 (the final issues could be something to tie in directly with the movie like Countdown)
have decided to wait for the TPB volumes (sounds like there will be 3 or 4)
going to be tough not buying them issue by issue but i like to save $
@17; captainkirk – They’ve said the movie is likely to be released in 2013, and, yeah, it sounds like Sam survives – maybe to be a 2013 player, maybe just to preserve a second Kirk male to keep future options open.
I’m also waiting on the trade for the Trek comic mostly because I would like to read the adaptations all at once. But I did twitter boborci months ago promising that if they adapt Spock’s brain in the first 12 issues I’d buy it monthly and he responded with a nicely amusingly enigmatic “Noted”. Anyway, I just hope that whatever TPB that leads into the next Trek movie would be out in time before the flick hits theaters. I remember “Countdown” had a ridiculously fast turnover to TPB, like the final issue was out pretty much a month before the movie and the trade was out 2 weeks later to be in bookstores in time for the flick.
I used to have a Viewmaster, I only had two ‘disks’ for it, Daktari, and ‘tourist attractions of the world.’
Hey spockchick- on view master I had fraggle rock, transformers, rainbow bright & muppets
@ 22 Hey Trekboi! I used to love Fraggle Rock!
Okay, can you help me to understand a couple of things about #1?
1) The year is 2259 and the SS Valiant disappeared 200 years ago…
2259-200=2059?! you mean… 4,5 years before Cochrane’s first flight? XD
Okay, so let’s say “almost 200 years”…
2) Spock: “Captain, the distress beacon we intercepted is from an old starfleet vessel. The SS VALIANT”
An old starfleet vessel? You mean “an old starfleet’s vessel”, I guess…
At the time of the Valiant there was only the UESPA, maybe… in fact in the original episode Kirk said “an old style ship”.
I know that those are trifles but I’d like to know if this is a complete reboot or if you are going to “save” the Enterprise continuity, at least.
If this is an altered timeline of another universe, a parallel universe, not the same of the ENT series, it’s okay for me.
If after Nero “all that we knew… is gone”, but I mean the past, the present and the future, it’s okay for me, as well… I just want to know it!!! XD
Best
Great cover, anyway. All the Ongoing covers, so far.
And nice comics, I like them, hoping to buy them in Italy too sooner or later. ;)
So much imagination and potential in the Star Trek universe and all CBS can do is “reboot”/insult the original Trek.
So completely, utterly sad…
I’ve been very impressed by the new series of ‘reboot’ episodes- “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was excellent, and I am looking forward to “Galileo 7”. The art and story on these are of excellent quality, and they will keep me happy until the movie eventually comes out.
3) Another trifle:
A “Distress beacon” (also known as a disaster beacon) is an automated device on board starships or shuttles that is used to alert other ships or stations that they are in need of help, and makes it easier to locate the starship in distress.
A “Distaster recorder” (or log buoy or recorder-marker) is a recording device carried by starships. In the event of imminent destruction or capture, a recorder-marker is designed to relay all the starship’s data back to its command base.
The one in the original pilot was a disaster recorder, not a distress beacon…
When you have a doubt, just read Memory Alpha or ask your faithful Trekkers. ;)
I hope they do some kind of mirror-universe-story that takes them to the prime universe and in which they see how their lives originally unfolded…
I hope to see the Admiral Archer (whoever he is) aboard the Enterprise and I’d like he could tell Kirk a story about the Romulan Wars! :D
Are these comic books available as downloads one can use on a computer, or are they just an app for mobile devices? I’d love to buy them and read them if I can.
I recognize the artist on the strip, it was Jim Aparo, later teamed with many writers on Batman comics in the 1970s.