DC Star Trek Comic Series.

[Tyjos Azari]

Well I just got 2 Star Trek TPBs Who Killed Captain Kirk and Ashes of Eden.

I'm now quite hooked on these Comics.

Any other TPBs that are out there worth getting?

Also wanting to get the Next Generation Comic Book series.

 

[JD]

I read the arc on the comics DVD, so I don't know how easy the TPB is to find, but the DC TOS series One Mirror Universe Saga is really good. Are you just interested in that once series/publisher, or are you looking for any comics?

 

[Tyjos Azari]

I just want to get the comics, I need something new to read. I got a few of the old TNG Issues and a few of the DS9 Issues.

I got 3 Trade Paperbacks, star trek I never really followed the comics but what I've read I find really interesting.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Mirror Universe Saga is the best of the best of the best of Star Trek comics. Read it!

 

[JD]

If you're interested in the comics, then my best recommendation would be to check out the DVD Comic Collection. It's $30 and you get every single comic book published before IDW got the license on one DVD.

 

[Trek Survivor]

If you're interested in the comics, then my best recommendation would be to check out the DVD Comic Collection. It's $30 and you get every single comic book published before IDW got the license on one DVD.

It's just not the same in my opinion. I really wish IDW would start collecting the DC comics again, but not as stupid "Best of" collections, but a complete, publication-order effort. A series of their "omnibus" editions, 16-18 issues per volume.

Start with TNG!

Obviously, their analysis of potential sales has proved such an effort would not be profitable, which is a shame. I just prefer actual books than reading things on a screen.

 

[Steve67]

Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart:

http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=100258

Lots of interesting and helpful replies.

 

[seigezunt]

Mirror Universe Saga is the best of the best of the best of Star Trek comics. Read it!

I found the original DC TPB of that, and it looks much nicer than the IDW reprint.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Seriously? Sweet Jesus! What kind of production values is IDW employing on their TPBs?

 

[ClayinCA]

I haven't seen all of the IDW TPB reprints, but the ones I have seen are uniformly awful - they look little better than photocopies (albeit on glossy paper). The reproduction is terrible.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I haven't seen all of the IDW TPB reprints, but the ones I have seen are uniformly awful - they look little better than photocopies (albeit on glossy paper). The reproduction is terrible.

IDW's trades of their own material are uniformly beautiful -- at least as good as the individual issues.

However, their reprints of older material from DC and Marvel have been lackluster. They look exactly like what they are -- shot from old comic books, not from the original art. The "Alternate Universes" collection was a particularly glaring example. The old DC TPB containing the exact same issues was completely recolored, and looked great. IDW's version, frankly, looked like shit. It was printed on thicker, glossier paper, but the pages were shot from someone's aging stash of back issues, and looked like it.

Who thinks it's a good business plan to produce an inferior reprint, especially when so many copies of the DC TPB are still floating around, and selling for a lower price?

 

[Therin of Andor]

However, their reprints of older material from DC and Marvel have been lackluster. They look exactly like what they are -- shot from old comic books, not from the original art.

No, it seems to me that when IDW is reproducing one of the older DC or Marvel ST comics - the ones that used a lot of Letratone (little uniform rows of dots) for showing half-tones and shading - they have also used a Photoshop-like technique to blur, deliberately, all of the Letratone's tiny dots. This results in a muddying of the colouring of the original artwork.

But DC Comics is hardly going to release crisp b/w copies of old artwork so that IDW can recolour them.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Why not? Dark Horse Comics released gorgeous collections of Marvel Comics old Star Wars comics from the 70s and 80s. They were printed on glossy paper and recolored to meet current standards. It's one of the finest comics collections I've ever owned. I find it hard to believe that DC wouldn't allow some of their best books ever to be republished in their full glory even if it's through another company. Printing inferior collections suggests the original work was inferior. DC Comics Star Trek was far from inferior.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Why not? Dark Horse Comics released gorgeous collections of Marvel Comics old Star Wars comics from the 70s and 80s. They were printed on glossy paper and recolored to meet current standards.

Really? I might have bought them if I knew about the re-coloring.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Buy 'em. They've been out for like eight years now and they are absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Daddy Todd]

But DC Comics is hardly going to release crisp b/w copies of old artwork so that IDW can recolour them.

Well, I seriously doubt if DC has retained "crisp b/w copies" of 25-year-old artwork for a licensed title they lost the license to a decade and a half ago, so they probably couldn't release it if they wanted to.

And no matter what the reason, IDW released some inferior-looking TPB volumes of archival material, repeating a great deal of material that was just reprinted by Titan 4 or 5 years before. The Titan versions were, IMHO, better looking and a better value, as they included reprints of old interviews in addition to reprinted comic stories.

I don't really care why they released a bunch of dodgy TPBs -- and I don't think it can be argued that they weren't inferior -- I think the release of all those "Best Of This 'n' That" volumes damaged IDW's reputation and probably sold very poorly. My LCS started out ordering 2 or 3 copies of each title, but when it became clear I was the ONLY one buying them (because I'm a sad completist) they quickly reduced their order to a single copy for my hold.

My point is -- Buy the old DC TPBs if you can find them, then buy the Titan trades. Then get the DVD-ROM, and enjoy every single Star Trek comic book (except for 2) published before 2005.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I find it hard to believe that DC wouldn't allow some of their best books ever to be republished in their full glory even if it's through another company.

You assume the b/w artwork exists as complete, clean copies. As we've seen in another thread, single sheets of original DC ST artwork is traded on eBay regularly.

IDW would presumably also have to pay for someone at DC and Marvel to research their archives. This red tape all costs money that is not necessarily guaranteed to be compensated by increased sales. You can bet an IDW bean counter did the number crunching.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Well, I seriously doubt if DC has retained "crisp b/w copies" of 25-year-old artwork for a licensed title they lost the license to a decade and a half ago, so they probably couldn't release it if they wanted to.

Exactly. That was part of my point. It's not as if this early "paste up" material was already computerized and readily accessible.

I recall a Marvel editorial discussing how they did the early "Fantastic Four" recoloured reprints as the first editions of their hardcover "Marvel Masterworks" series. They had a special process that faded off all the colour from actual file copy comic book pages of those very rare issues, thus permitting new, clean, b/w copies to be made but, of course, ruining the originals forever.

 

[Tyjos Azari]

Right now I just wanna find a good read.....don't really care about how these things were put together and all that jazz.....

I've found some of the DC Comics Trade Paperbacks crazy cheap online but right now that's on another month's to get list...been focusing on Star Trek Figures and DVD now.

I just enjoy comics, I like the feel of the book in my hand rather than scrolling through the pages on my computer.

 

[seigezunt]

That is one thing that always weighed against the IDW TPB reprints (and this goes for their Doctor Who Classics volumes) -- the lack of any kind of framing material, like an intro are articles about the history, etc.