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Trek Artifacts : Gold Key Star Trek Comics |
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TREKCORE > SPECIALS > Trek Artifacts > Gold Key Star Trek Comics
PUBLISHED: Sept 16, 2006 Star Trek Artifact #2: The Gold Key Star Trek Comics
Comic book series based on the various
Star Trek TV series and movies have been in almost continuous
publication since The Original Series initial TV run. Between 1967 and
2002 there have been only two years in which no Star Trek comics were
published (2/82-2/84); some 500+ comic book issues, graphic novels, and
bookshelf “trade paperback” collections have been produced, a number
equaled or surpassed only by a handful of other licensed properties in
comics such as Star Wars, Conan The Barbarian, and the various cartoon
characters of Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. Although there are
currently no Trek comics in publication–the last were issued by DC under
the Wildstorm imprint in 2002–there exists a huge wealth of “four-color”
Star Trek adventures for fans to peruse.
Western Publishing, under the Gold
Key imprint, was the first company to publish comics based on Star Trek.
Their series began in 1967 and ran 12 years, ending in 1979. Marvel
Comics then acquired the license just in time for the release of Star
Trek: The Motion Picture, adapting the film in an oversized special and
releasing a series based on the TMP continuity which ran until 1982. Two
years after the last Marvel issue (to the exact cover date) DC comics
published their first Star Trek series, based on the continuity
established in the first three feature films, as well as an adaptation
of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. This series ran until 1989 at
which point it was replaced by a new series featuring higher quality
paper and overall production values. DC also published the initial Star
Trek: The Next Generation 6-issue “mini-series” in 1988 which was then
followed by a monthly ongoing series in 1989. DC also published
adaptations of the feature films ST:IV, ST:V, ST:VI, and Generations as
well as several mini-series and a host of specials and one-shot issues
between 1989 and 1996. In a rare case of a licensed property being
handled by two different publishers simultaneously, Malibu Comics
acquired the rights to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and published an
ongoing series, as well as numerous mini-series and specials, from
1993-96. All ST licenses were then acquired by Marvel Comics in 1996 who
published a variety of series under the “Paramount Comics” imprint
including the first series based on Star Trek: Voyager, as well as Star
Trek: Early Voyages a series based on the characters and concepts from
the first ST pilot “The Cage”, chronicling the voyages of Captain Pike’s
Enterprise. In 2000 the ST license went back to DC who published a
variety of mini-series, one-shots, and graphic novels under the
Wildstorm imprint until 2002. The license has remained dormant for the
last four years, but the upcoming feature film may result in a new wave
of Star Trek comics.
Back issues of the various series can be found at comic shops all over
North America, Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world. Many of
the ST comics have been reprinted as collected editions in “trade
paperback” format which can be found at comic shops as well as many
mainstream booksellers, especially the big chains like Barnes & Noble,
Waldenbooks, etc. For more detailed information and back issue pricing,
consult the current edition of Robert M. Overstreet’s The Official Comic
Book Price Guide (commonly referred to as the “Overstreet Guide”). I’ll
also provide more detailed articles on the individual series in upcoming
installments of Trek Artifacts. See you in the funny papers.
During the 1960's and ‘70's Gold
Key–the comics imprint of Western Publishing–was one of the chief
publishers of movie and TV related comics. Their Star Trek series began
with issue #1, cover dated June, 1967. A year later #2 was released
followed by #3, dated 12/68, & #4 dated 6/69. The series then assumed a
quarterly publishing schedule, then a bi-monthly and, eventually, a
monthly schedule. While some believe this was due to Star Trek’s luke-warm
popularity during the show’s initial TV run, this kind of “testing the
waters” approach was common practice in those days since sales data for
a specific issue would not be available until months after the
magazine’s release. The series ran for 61 regular issues, plus four
oversized “Enterprise Logs” specials, which reprinted earlier issues,
and ended in 1979.
Gold Key’s series was similar to
the 1967 Leaf trading cards in the sense that the stories were often
written and drawn by people with a limited knowledge of the TV series
itself, often resulting in juvenile plots featuring plenty of monsters
and weird aliens (which was appropriate considering Gold Key’s main
audience were younger readers). Much of the art for the series was done
by foreign artists–usually Italian–who had never seen the TV show and
worked off of publicity photos of the characters, planets, and
spaceships. Characters were often drawn with backpacks when on landing
parties, armed with different looking phasers worn in holsters like
cowboys. Green often replaced gold when coloring the uniforms and
characters would often be seen in the wrong color uniform. The
Enterprise interiors were also largely improvised by the artists and the
Enterprise itself was often drawn with rocket-like discharges coming
from the warp nacelles and even from the shuttle bay! The planets and
aliens were equally as creative and colorful although they often looked
more like something from a 1950's sci-fi movie rather than from Star
Trek.
Still, the series remains the most collectible of all the Star Trek comics series primarily due to the great covers, the first nine of which featured photos from the TV series with issues #10-44, 46-59 sporting classic painted covers (#45, 60, 61 have line-drawn covers). During the sixties and seventies comics collectors were mainly concerned with material published by Marvel and DC and since much of Gold Key’s output was seen as “kid’s stuff”, it wasn’t as seriously collected as the big super-hero comics like Spider-Man and Batman. This dynamic has made the GK issues scarcer than other comics published during the same period. Coupled with the explosion of demand for TOS-related material (as well as for ST collectibles in general) in the 1980's and ‘90's prices for these issues soared. High-grade (near-mint to mint) copies of the early issues are very hard to come by and will usually cost more than their list price in the Overstreet Guide. Rare variants exist of #1, 2, 3 that feature photos on the back covers as well as on the interior of the covers. Beginning in the late ‘70's Western Publishing began using the Whitman logo instead of the Gold Key logo on some of their comics (a “W” with a little smiley face overlaid). While some of these are reprints that were sold in plastic-bagged “multi-packs” through non-newsstand outlets, issues with the Whitman logo are considered to be somewhat scarcer than the Gold Key logo versions of the same issues; some collectors will pay a premium for the Whitman logo covers while others want to have one of each variation. Recently, Checker has released
trade paperback reprint volumes of the issues in chronological order and
these can be found at comic shops as well as some mainstream book
dealers. We’ll be featuring all of the covers to the Gold Key run here
in Trek Artifacts plus some interior pages, original art, and a few
other surprises.
Next Artifact: Star Trek Magazine
Covers, though we will be looking at more Leaf cards and Gold Key comics
before this. |
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