Star Trek comics on DVD

[Therin of Andor]

^ They were 45s that had the comics, not 78s....

I have ST comics on 45s and 33s. Some titles were released in both versions, and with either TOS art or TMP photo covers

 

[Christopher]

So they didn't make any effort (and yeah I understand it would have been a considerable one) to clean up the images a bit?

Don't misunderstand me, they look great. The defects I mentioned are rare. I'm sure GITCorp tried to find near-mint copies in every case, but when dealing with decades-old comics, that may not always be feasible.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Well, now that is really agrivating. So are these pretty much just straight scans, as if someone put them in a scanner and them put it all on a disc?

It's not done on a scanner. It's actually a really cool camera rig GIT uses. It holds the comic open and flat and photographs each page digitally.

 

[Christopher]

^^Ah. I stand corrected.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Mine's not supposed to ship til tomorrow either.

 

[JD]

^^Well, yeah, what else would they be? After all, most of these comics were published decades ago before there was any form of digital storage. Scanning them is the only way to archive them. And it has the advantage that you get everything that was in the original, including letters, editorial columns, and ads, so it's more thorough than the kind of thing you'd get in a TPB reprint. The catch is that it's only as good as the copies available for archiving, so sometimes you get wrinkles, tears, smudges, or in this case, missing pages.

That's what I thought, but I just thought I'd make sure. I don't have a problem with that. I was just thinking that maybe they somehow went in and just redid all of the stuff on a computer. But I guess that probably would have taken them years to try and put together.

So they didn't make any effort (and yeah I understand it would have been a considerable one) to clean up the images a bit?

Don't misunderstand me, they look great. The defects I mentioned are rare. I'm sure GITCorp tried to find near-mint copies in every case, but when dealing with decades-old comics, that may not always be feasible.

Understandable. I'll happily put up with some defects if it meant I can get every Trek comic published.

Well, now that is really agrivating. So are these pretty much just straight scans, as if someone put them in a scanner and them put it all on a disc?

It's not done on a scanner. It's actually a really cool camera rig GIT uses. It holds the comic open and flat and photographs each page digitally.

Nifty.

 

[KirkPicard]

Sad to say, I've discovered that the copy of Marvel's Star Trek Unlimited #3 scanned by the DVD's makers is apparently missing several pages. Both the TOS and TNG stories have abrupt jumps in the narrative about four pages before and after the center staple, so it seems that the sheet of paper those pages were on was either torn out or omitted from their copy.

Christopher, I just compared my physical copy to the one on the DVD and I did not find any discrepancy in that issue. Maybe there was simply a delay in loading that particular image or it was corrupt in some way?

 

[Christopher]

Christopher, I just compared my physical copy to the one on the DVD and I did not find any discrepancy in that issue. Maybe there was simply a delay in loading that particular image or it was corrupt in some way?

No, I checked the page count and numbering in the file. There are no breaks in the page numbering shown on the screen, and the total number of pages in the file (with each "page" being a photo reproduction of two side-by-side pages of the comic) is given as 27, whereas the other Unlimited issues are 28.

Here are the two discontinuities I see in the stories. In the TOS story, on p. 11 in the PDF (17 story pages in), the last panel has the abrasive Lt. Corman, who's been questioning Uhura's right to command the mission, lay into her angrily about how their current predicament is all her fault. On the very next story page, the first dialog box is "...And as mission commander, it's my call." Clearly that's supposed to be the tail end of a speech by Uhura, one that mollified Corman, since he's helpful from that point onward. But the actual speech is missing. In the TNG story, two pages in (p. 16 in the PDF), we see Riker giving exposition to his away team just after they arrive at a refugee camp. On the next story page, suddenly they're faced with a group of armed, masked figures, and Riker's first line is "I said, can I h-- Oh." So again, he's clearly referring back to a line of dialogue that's missing in the story as printed.

If your copy is the same as this, then the printing error may have been in many or all of the issues. If they were all like that, it was Marvel's mixup and GITCorp can't be faulted.

 

[KirkPicard]

I see, the pages do appear to be missing in the print copy. The sequence plays exactly as you describe. Shame on Marvel.

BTW: Many thanks for all your writing contributions to Trek. Especially, "Ex Machina" and "Greater Than the Sum" I completed all the Stargazer line by Michael Jan Friedman and plan on reading "The Buried Age" next. First though, I should revisit TNG issue #59 from the DC line...

 

[LivingDeadGuy]

I got into the DC/Marvel comics really late into the game, like, after the run of all of them was over with.

I was only able to get a handful of the actual comics, so this'll be a great way to read a lot of the stories. I'll definitely order this soon.

 

[jezor]

Note that the price just dropped to $39.99 for this collection on Amazon. {ProfJonathan}

 

[ronny]

Hmm, and mine show showed up today. Guess I'll write Amazon and see if I can get a credit. I don't want to bother with sending it back and buying it again.

Tonight is a total geek out night for me. After work it's off to Borders for a Neal Stephenson reading/signing of his new book Anathem then it's home to check out the DVD.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Hmm, and mine show showed up today. Guess I'll write Amazon and see if I can get a credit.

Do so. I sent them an e-mail to them today asking what the point of pre-ordering was when it gets shipped so much later than more recent orders, and complaining about them dropping the price before even shipping it to me, and they gave me a $9.96 credit.

If they had shipped it to me on the release date, I would have chalked it up to luck of the draw and not complained about it.

 

[Christopher]

Well, I spent most of the day reading Marvel's Starfleet Academy comic, source of the character Pava ek'Noor sh'Aqaaba, now of the Titan novels. It turns out that it was indeed right up there with Early Voyages as the best of the Marvel Trek series. It was rather Marvel-y, somewhat melodramatic and action-packed and fanciful at times, and its depiction of Earth society seemed a bit too un-utopian in some ways, but it had interesting characters and pretty rich storytelling. It's good that it was able to resolve most of its major story arcs before the end, but there were a couple of things left dangling and it's too bad they didn't get elaborated upon.

One question, though. The contents screen for the Marvel comics says that issue 18 of Academy is printed in both English and Klingon-language editions, but I can only find the English edition. Am I missing something, or is the Klingon edition not included despite what the contents say? (Not that I care about having the Klingon edition, since I'm not fluent in Klingon and find the idea a bit gimmicky anyway. I just wonder about the discrepancy.)

I also rather enjoyed Marvel's Voyager miniseries Splashdown. It was an imaginative adventure, and it had something unusual in VGR: fairly decent science. There was an excellent sequence in part 3 depicting a fire in zero gravity. We also get to see the aerowing shuttle in action for the first and only time (although that makes it incompatible with what I established in Places of Exile about why we never saw the aeroshuttle).

So now I'm finally all caught up on Marvel Trek comics, only a decade or so late. The only remaining ones that I've never read are a few Wildstorm titles (The Killing Shadows, N-Vector, Avalon Rising, Planet Killer, and the anthology Special) and most of the Gold Keys.

 

[ronny]

Hmm, and mine show showed up today. Guess I'll write Amazon and see if I can get a credit.

Do so. I sent them an e-mail to them today asking what the point of pre-ordering was when it gets shipped so much later than more recent orders, and complaining about them dropping the price before even shipping it to me, and they gave me a $9.96 credit.

If they had shipped it to me on the release date, I would have chalked it up to luck of the draw and not complained about it.

Amazon responded basically saying too bad. That blows. Here's the relevant piece of the letter:

I understand you may have taken advantage of a 30-day price guarantee policy in the past. However, that policy was discontinued on September 1, 2008.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Interesting. Maybe it's because mine hadn't even shipped yet.

 

[Boadrummer]

Amazon responded basically saying too bad. That blows. Here's the relevant piece of the letter:

I understand you may have taken advantage of a 30-day price guarantee policy in the past. However, that policy was discontinued on September 1, 2008.

Not quite sure why they discontinued it. That's a bit disappointing.

 

[ronny]

Interesting. Maybe it's because mine hadn't even shipped yet.

That's it. There was a line somewhere saying they can't give rebates or what ever on completed orders. Oh well, I'm focusing on how cool the DVD is vs. how lame Amazon is.

 

[c5maier]

I would love to buy this DVD as well, as the majority of the content would be sparkling new to me.
I had read the Goldkey comics in German translation in the mid 70's (not really liking them even then but there were practically no other original Star Trek stories available).
Apart from that, I am the proud owner of a complete set of Malibu DS9 comics, complete with ashtrays. I collected them not only because DS9 is my favourite series next to TOS, but also I was intrigued by the, then revolutionary, colouring style. And a fair number of the stories are really very good.
Practically all the other comics I have never read, but would sure like to, given the bargain price.

But how do I get hold of them? Amazon.com does not ship this item to Europe, and Amazon.uk does not list it. Has anybody got a good idea? I'd appreciate all help.

 

[Peak]

You can try a comic shop instead.

I'm thinking about Midtown Comics if I don't find anything cheaper (on the other hand, the dollar is so cheap right now, that it doesn't really matter).