Rich Handley just notified me about this. The latest issue of Wired (the May issue, I guess) has a 6-page comic story about Spock drawn by Paul Pope. J.J. Abrams guest edits this issue of Wired. Not sure who wrote the comic story. http://io9.com/5215874/spocks-backstory-revealed-in-the-special-jj-abrams-issue-of-wired
^The story is written by Bob Orci & Alex Kurtzman, the film's screenwriters. And Abrams is a "guest editor" for the entire issue, dealing mainly with Abrams's fascination with puzzles and mysteries. http://trekmovie.com/2009/04/17/jj-abrams-guest-edited-wired-mag-preview-w-star-trek-mini-comic/
Fascinating; will have to find away to get this in the UK Good ol' ebay me thinks). I find myself rather curious how this can be done while IDW have the TOS comics license.
I picked up a copy of the May 2009 Wired this afternoon. Paul Pope's art for "When Worlds Collide" has a nice retro feel to it, which suits a story about Spock. Let's face it, he's an old dude in the Trek universe, someone we've known longer than other characters. I guess the comic rights for the new movie are separate from the rights IDW has negotiated. I'd like to see Pope do more Trek.
^As I understand it, though, the mini-comic in Wired is grounded mainly in the continuity of TOS and its movies. I figure IDW's rights must be non-exclusive, seeing as how TokyoPop is also publishing TOS (and now TNG) comics.
Back when Dan Taylor was IDW Trek editor, he mentioned that IDW had the right of first refusal on DS9, Voyager and Enterprise if they ever wanted to expand out. So that under their agreement with CBS if another company wanted to do comics other than TOS and TNG IDW had to say they didn’t want to keep that option open to themselves first. That gave me the impression that did have some level of exclusivity with TOS and TNG which they already opted into. And from that I assumed Tokyopop got in on a separate license just for comics presented specifically in the manga-style format. Continuing that train of thought, maybe IDW's license covers specifically a standard comic book presentation, allowing something like this mini-comic in a magazine to not be covered/conflict with that agreement. I believe the Star Trek Magazine’s license allows them to produce original Star Trek fiction (don't know if that extends to comics or just prose) too, which would seem like a similar arrangement beside Pocket having the general license for Star Trek prose.
I hardly ever go magazine shopping, but today I picked up the Wired issue. The comic is kinda advertised on the front page. I flipped through it to make sure I was purchasing the correct mag, will read it before the movie.
I love Wired, but I hate the fact that it always takes a solid ten minutes to spot it on a magazine rack. Every bookstore/supermarket/etc sticks it in a different category.