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Trek Artifacts : Marvel Star Trek Comics |
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TREKCORE > SPECIALS > Trek Artifacts > Marvel Star Trek Comics
PUBLISHED: April 19, 2007 Star Trek Artifact: Marvel Star Trek Comics
The arrival of Star Trek: The Motion
Picture in 1979 ushered in a new era for what we now call the “Star Trek
Franchise”. One of the most expensive and highly anticipated movies of
the decade, TMP brought with it a merchandising blitz (inspired by the
success of the Star Wars merchandising empire) of galactic proportions:
toys, trading cards, games, t-shirts, bed sheets, lunch boxes, and, of
course, comic books, based on ST’s new incarnation flooded retailers of
all kinds. The Gold Key series had ended it’s run with issue #61, dated
March 1979, which cleared the way for new comics based on the look and
style of TMP.
It’s unclear exactly why the license
moved from Gold Key to Marvel; in the late 1970's Marvel had established
itself as the number one comics publisher with a successful track record
of licensed-property based series such as Conan The Barbarian, The
Micronauts, and Star Wars. Paramount may have felt Marvel the best
company for a ST series however it’s more likely that Marvel was simply
willing to pay more for the license than other publishers. Whatever the
reasons, Marvel began their first Star Trek era (the company regained
the license in the mid-1990's) with an adaptation of Star Trek: The
Motion Picture in Marvel Comics Super Special #15 (December, 1979), a
magazine-size series specializing in movie adaptations. The regular
comic book series soon followed (#1 is cover dated 4/80, but because of
the way comics were dated and distributed at the time, was available in
January, 1980) with issues #1-3 reprinting the film adaptation and new
stories beginning in #4. The series ran for 18 issues, the last of which
carries a 2/82 cover date. There were also two “pocket paperback” book
volumes release, one reprinting the movie adaptation, the other
reprinting various original stories from different issues.
Little is known about the “behind-the-scenes” activity of the first Marvel run as it is perhaps the least discussed of all ST comics by fans. Except for the Star Trek: Untold Voyages mini-series published by Marvel in the 1990's, it’s the only comics series that takes place within the TMP continuity. The characters are depicted as they are seen in the film with the soft-color “pajama” uniforms, wrist-band communicators, gold landing party outfits, etc. This alone may have been a reason why the series only lasted 18 issues; many people forget–or never knew–that the fan reaction to TMP was mixed at the time of it’s release. There were many who felt the film had “sold out” the characters in favor of larger-than-life special effects that would attract the broad “family audience” demographic (keep in mind that TMP was one of the most expensive films ever made to that point with a total budget of around $46 million, roughly equivalent to 3-1/2 times that figure today). Although profitable, TMP was often reviled by serious Trek fans who continued to hold TOS as the one, true Star Trek. Given that Marvel’s series was a monthly reminder of the “new” Trek, it was no doubt avoided by fans who felt betrayed by TMP.
And then there was the quality of the
series. Although the Marvel series generally featured better writing and
art than the Gold Key series, it still tended to fall back on TOS-style
conventions: one issue featured a story dealing with a haunted house in
space while another featured an ancient Egypt-like planet on which Kirk
becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead pharaoh. The third-to-last
issue featured a planet of gnomes, the lovable little fantasy creatures
that had become trendy in the early 1980's. The writers were better
attuned to the character nuances that made TOS popular such as the
comically adversarial relationship between Spock and McCoy and also gave
supporting characters such as Uhura and Sulu larger roles. But for
whatever reason the series could never break away from the formulaic–not
to mention ridiculous–and establish a modern vision of Star Trek.
As far as collectors and would-be
collectors are concerned: due to large print runs of earlier issues and
collector hoarding, the first Marvel series remained nearly worthless
for years, often lining the 25 cent discount boxes at comic shows. But
with the increase in demand for ST collectibles in the 1990's collectors
began to fill in their runs of these books. Today the last two issues
are considered to be scarcer (due to the lower print runs that final
issues of a soon-to-be-cancelled series receive) and sell at higher
prices than the earlier issues. Still most of these books can be had for
under $5 and have never been reprinted in trade paperback form. Marvel
Comics Super Special #15 also saw heavy circulation and can be had for
under $10; there exists a scarcer $2 cover price version (as opposed to
$1.50 on most copies) as the price was bumped up near the end of the
print run which sells in the $10-20 range. Although not listed in the
Overstreet Comics Price Guide, the Pocket Paperback editions are
uncommon and would probably sell for $15 and up in top condition. The
“Power Records” book-and-record sets (which carry a “Peter Pan Records”
logo on the cover) sell for $20-50 in top condition (with the record of
course). Finding newspaper pages of the comic strip would be quite
difficult, if not impossible, especially given the fast-degrading nature
of newsprint. Still there are probably a few people out there who still
have them in a scrap book somewhere and might be willing to part with
them for the right price, so keep looking! (*consult the Overstreet
Comic Book Price Guide for more detailed pricing information*)
In the coming weeks you will see all
the covers from the Marvel Series, Marvel Comics Super Special #15, the
pocket paperback books, Power/ Peter Pan Records’ “The Robot Masters”,
some of the newspaper strips and a few extras. Many thanks to Mark
Martinez and his terrific website, The Star Trek Comics Checklist (check
it out) from whence came the newspaper strip scans. See you in the funny
papers. |
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