Reflections on Black History Month and Star Trek Novels

[Christopher]

Yes, but hasn't it all been written by white people? For Black History Month it would be nice to honor POC who have created for Star Trek.

Not all. We've had a few authors of color, like Steven Barnes, Geoffrey Thorne, Strange New Worlds contributor Derek Tyler Attico, and Lawrence Yep if you go back to the '80s. Though it's true that we could certainly use more diversity in the writer pool.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Sometimes the cover artists don't get the memo, though, or choose to ignore it. In David Gerrold's Bantam novel The Galactic Whirlpool, the main guest star, Katwen, was clearly described in the text as having very dark skin and hair, but the re-release cover from the '80s rendered her as a blonde who looked a bit like Janice Rand.

That made me think of some old Gold Key ST comic books, in which the colorist rendered Uhura as white.
Not that Gold Key ever did have a particularly good reputation for depicting Star Trek accurately.

 

[Christopher]

That made me think of some old Gold Key ST comic books, in which the colorist rendered Uhura as white.
Not that Gold Key ever did have a particularly good reputation for depicting Star Trek accurately.

That wasn't Gold Key, that was the Power Records comic of The Crier in Emptiness. Penciler Neal Adams clearly drew Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, but apparently for likeness-rights reasons, they were altered in inking/coloring to make Uhura blonde and Sulu black with an afro.

Gold Key's notorious coloring errors include making Scotty blond and coloring Rand's beehive like a red wool cap.

 

[KRAD]

Yes, but hasn't it all been written by white people? For Black History Month it would be nice to honor POC who have created for Star Trek.

Not all, but way too much. We need more Geoffrey Thornes and Derek Tyler Atticos and Robert Simpsons.....

 

[Indysolo]

Not all. We've had a few authors of color, like Steven Barnes, Geoffrey Thorne, Strange New Worlds contributor Derek Tyler Attico, and Lawrence Yep if you go back to the '80s. Though it's true that we could certainly use more diversity in the writer pool.

I was referring to the examples presented in the opening post. Last year I wanted to read a Star Trek novel by a Black author before reading this thread.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

That wasn't Gold Key, that was the Power Records comic of The Crier in Emptiness. Penciler Neal Adams clearly drew Nichelle Nichols and George Takei, but apparently for likeness-rights reasons, they were altered in inking/coloring to make Uhura blonde and Sulu black with an afro.
Gold Key's notorious coloring errors include making Scotty blond and coloring Rand's beehive like a red wool cap.

I never even heard of The Crier in Emptiness. But I think I still have my decades-old bound reprints of the early Gold Key ST comics, and I distinctly recall at least one instance of a white Uhura. And now that you mention it, I also recall Rand with a red hat over her trademark hairdo.

 

[Jinn]

From almost a year ago:

There were some vintage Gold Key ST comic books, as I recall, in which the colorist apparently wasn't aware that Uhura was black.

You're thinking of the Power Records comics, specifically The Crier in Emptiness, where Neal Adams's accurate renderings of Sulu and Uhura were altered to change their ethnicities (Uhura became white and Sulu became black), and Arex was redrawn as a human named Connors (and given a Russian accent by the narrator, who may have mistaken him for Chekov). I don't think it was due to lack of awareness, I think it was some kind of a likeness rights issue.

But the colorist of Gold Key's first Trek issue didn't know Rand's hairdo was a beehive and colored the top part red under the assumption that it was a knit cap or something.

I'd never even heard of "Power Records" ST comic books, but I think I probably have all of the Gold Key ones, a few as individual issues, and everything that was reprinted in the four bound volumes.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I guess I have heard of The Crier in Emptiness. But only in the context of the earlier thread.

 

[Cake Is Eternal]

Yes, but hasn't it all been written by white people? For Black History Month it would be nice to honor POC who have created for Star Trek.

Start a thread and we can all jump in!

 

[Indysolo]

Start a thread and we can all jump in!

There is already a thread here on Black History Month and Star Trek. We're posting in it now. The initial post was about fictional Black characters created by White people. That's not what this month is about.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Not really.. Just that the 10% are being loud and given a platform by the media. Most of America is tired of the bs. And want both sides to F' off.

That is naïveté.