... Or do they come compiled into larger books like I have seen for Marvel and DC comics? I'm interested in reading the Star Trek comics but I wasn't too keen on having to go out and buy every single issue one by one... I'd seen these compilations I guess you could call them for other comic series, and I was wondering if they were available for the Star Trek comics as well?
All the Trek comics miniseries published by IDW are reprinted in trade paperback, generally within a month or two of the end of the miniseries. The manga-style Trek comics from TokyoPop are in digest-sized book form to begin with. As for older Trek comics, there are various trade-paperback collections of many of them, and almost all were recently collected on a DVD-ROM.
Memory Beta lays out the IDW collections status pretty well: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/IDW All the minis up through Countdown have been reprinted in trade, with the exceptions of The Last Generation (coming in July) and The Hollow Crown (will be reprinted with another Byrne Romulans mini, Schism, once that completes). You can get them all pretty cheaply off Amazon.
John Bryne's doing more Romulans! Sweet, so far that and the NF mini have been the only series I'v been able to get all of. I do plan on getting most of the others in TB eventually though.
FWIW, I cover the trade paperback collections at my Trek books site, and for really complete info on Trek comics, you have to check out Mark Martinez's site.
^The Comics Checklist is a cool site, but it looks like it hasn't been updated in about a year. There aren't any covers more recent than summer '08.
I like to just get the trade paperback as well...I find single issues not a satisfying read. Also a space issue.
You can also get EVERY Star Trek comic done except Gold Key I think from the 60s to the early 2000s on CDROM. In fact, that is the ONLY way to get some of the rarer stuff, like the early 80s Marvel run.
The only comic books missing from the DVD-ROM (not CD) are the two Star Trek/X-Men crossover comics from Marvel and the Klingon-language variant of Starfleet Academy #18 (although the packaging claims to contain that variant). It doesn't contain any of the American or British newspaper comic strips, but the publisher has reportedly been negotiating for the rights to collect those on a later DVD.
While it's true that the Marvel run is on the DVD-ROM, that's not the only place to get it-- issues #4-14 were just reprinted by IDW as Star Trek Omnibus, Volume 1.
And issues #1-3, ie. the Marvel adaptation of ST:TMP, will be collected in a TOS movies 1-6 omnibus (after the IDW ST II issues come out singly).
Yeah, IDW is doing a good job of putting out Trek comic collections. Can't wait for the Wrath of Khan adaptation.
The first part came out yesterday, and while it gives the film a much darker look, it does use the comics format well. I'm waiting for Kirk to yell "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN."