Star Trek Early Voyages 1st Issue They had a couple series in the 90's that I enjoyed. There was this one and one that was based on Starfleet Academy. If you ever see these I'd recommend getting them.
I especially loved the Starfleet Academy series. T'Priell's arc was amazing. If they ever do that academy CBS-AA series, I hope they've read the comics for inspiration.
I got some kind of three-pack as a kid with the first issues of Starfleet Academy, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. I read the Academy one again and again, but the others didn't do much for me. As an adult I tracked down the rest of Academy, plus Early Voyages and Unlimited, but never felt compelled to pick up any more of the DS9 or Voyager ones (except for their Telepathy War tie-ins). I think those five were all the Marvel ongoings.
Anyone who is interested in these...the Complete Comics Collection CD is a no brainer. Very highly recommended.
It was DC who didn't have the DS9 license, which they lost out to Malibu. Malibu had it 1993-95; Marvel got the license to all Star Trek in 1996, which they had until 1998.
Brief history of Trek comics just for the hell of it: Gold Key/Whitman 1967-79: TOS (duh) British Joe 90/TV21 comic strips 1969-73: TOS Power Records 1975-6: TOS/TAS (sort of) Peter Pan Records 1979: TMP Marvel 1979-82: TMP LA Times Syndicate comic strips 1979-83: TMP/TWOK DC 1984-96: TOS (mostly movie era), TNG Malibu 1993-95: DS9 Marvel 1996-98: TOS, TNG, DS9, VGR, Starfleet Academy, Early Voyages, X-Men crossovers Wildstorm 1999-2001: Mostly TNG & VGR, some TOS & DS9, one New Frontier Tokyopop manga 2006-9: 3 TOS volumes, 1 TNG volume IDW 2007-present: Mostly TOS, TNG, and Kelvin, some DS9, one New Frontier, intercompany crossovers, DSC, reprints of earlier comics
DS9 wasn't part of DC's license in the early '90's, instead it was published by Malibu. When you count up all the miniseries, annuals and specials, Malibu managed to put out 66 issues between mid-1993 and the end of 1996. In other words, more than two a month. Towards the end of that run, Malibu was acquired by Marvel, mostly because Marvel wanted Malibu's then-cutting-edge computer coloring system. Marvel were able to convince Paramount to sever their deal with DC, and start a line of Marvel/Paramount Comics to cover the entire Star Trek universe. It ran from late 1996 to mid-1998, at which point Marvel canceled all their Star Trek titles, abandoning Pike & crew (Early Voyages) in the middle of a continuing storyline. Marvel had monthly DS9 and VOY titles, as well as an every-other-month title called "Star Trek Unlimited" that generally included a complete TOS and a complete TNG story. There were also the original monthlies "Starfleet Academy" and "Early Voyages" and a handful of specials and one-shots (including the two X-Men crossovers, which didn't get included in the CD-ROM collection.) Somewhere around a hundred issues in under two years. ETA: Double-sniped while I was consulting references. D'OH!
Looking over my list above, I notice a couple of things. One, the only time we went more than 3 years without Trek comic books (or more than 2 years without some sort of Trek comic production, including daily strips) was after Wildstorm lost/gave up the license in 2001. Two, IDW has now roughly tied with Gold Key and DC as the longest holders of the license, 12 years each. Since there's no sign that IDW is likely to stop publishing Trek comics anytime soon, they will take the record by next year, if they haven't already.
I really enjoy Early Voyages and Starfleet Academy. I actually didn't read all of EV though, I stopped before the story that ended in the unresolved cliffhanger ending. I also read Unlimted, and their DS9 series which I also enjoyed. I don't think I ever read all of the Voyager series, and I haven't read any of Untold Voyages. I actually still have my paper copies of the first few DS9 and VOY issues from back when they first came out, but I switched over to the DVD once I got it. A couple fun little Trek Lit connections: Pava from the Titan books actually started as one of the main characters in Starfleet Academy. Moves With Burning Grace, the Pike era USS Enterprise Chief Engineer from Early Voyages, has gone on to make appearances in several novels and e-books.
At least two of those were partly my fault. I loved that character, and I encouraged Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore to use him in Foundations (I don't recall now if it was my idea originally or theirs, but either way, I was all for it), and I asked Margaret Wander Bonanno to include him in Burning Dreams.
Malibu's coloring system is not actually the reason, as Marvel never used it. DC had a tentative deal in place to buy Malibu, and Marvel jumped in and topped DC's offer to prevent DC from acquiring Malibu and increasing their market share. And Marvel made a stupid deal in acquiring the Trek license. It turned out they would never make any money on the Star Trek comics. Every comic they published was a loss, which is why Marvel abruptly cancelled the line.
Did you have to arrange clearances with the writers of Early Voyages in order to use the character in the novels? Kor
There may have been a courtesy heads-up that it was happening, but I'd suspect the answer is no clearances were needed. CBS owns anything that's created for the comics and novels. It's all work-for-hire.
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Allyn is correct -- there are no "clearances," as the writers of Trek fiction have precisely zero ownership and/or authority over the characters they write in Trek fiction. I no more needed to get clearance from Ian Edginton & Dan Abnett than any other authors needed to get clearance from me to use President Nan Bacco. The only "clearance" necessary is from the licensing department at CBS/Paramount, who have to clear everything.