Any advice for reading the comics DVD?

[jgdst]

Hey everyone.

I managed to get hold of the comic book collection on DVD yesterday (no easy task in the UK, I can assure you ). I've never read a Trek comic, so I originally decided to read them all in order of release starting with the Gold Key 1967 comics. I've discovered that this is a mammoth task, no matter which way I try and attack it!

I read through the first two, but I'm a bit alarmed that the conclusion to both of them is total planet annihilation Plus the finer details of the series (transporter -> materialisation chamber, tv-radio communications, etc) can be a little off. Not a huge issue, but it's at the back of my mind while I'm reading.

So, do any other Trek comic fans out there have any suggestions for starting points, or standout stories I should put at the top of the reading list? Or am I better to just plough through them chronologically by issue date/number as I originally thought?

 

[Christopher]

Don't give up on the Gold Key comics. They get considerably better after a while, although they're still fairly silly throughout and their consistency with screen Trek is marginal at best.

I'm not sure going by strict chronological order is the way to go, since DC was publishing TOS and TNG comics simultaneously for quite a while, and I think Malibu's DS9 overlapped with both of those; also, Marvel had a whole bunch of simultaneous titles for a while. So if you went back and forth among all the titles published in a given month before moving on to the next, that would disrupt the flow of multipart stories. Probably best to read each series individually before moving on to the next -- except in the case of Marvel's multi-series "Telepathy War" crossover. The installments of that in the Unlimited (TNG) and DS9 titles are best read as part of the Starfleet Academy series. Luckily, the DVD-ROM has a separate section listing all the "Telepathy War" issues in sequence.

 

[William Leisner]

Hey everyone.

I managed to get hold of the comic book collection on DVD yesterday (no easy task in the UK, I can assure you ). I've never read a Trek comic, so I originally decided to read them all in order of release starting with the Gold Key 1967 comics. I've discovered that this is a mammoth task, no matter which way I try and attack it!

I read through the first two, but I'm a bit alarmed that the conclusion to both of them is total planet annihilation Plus the finer details of the series (transporter -> materialisation chamber, tv-radio communications, etc) can be a little off. Not a huge issue, but it's at the back of my mind while I'm reading.

So, do any other Trek comic fans out there have any suggestions for starting points, or standout stories I should put at the top of the reading list? Or am I better to just plough through them chronologically by issue date/number as I originally thought?

Seriously... this stuff is out there for your entertainment and enjoyment. If the early Gold Keys aren't doing that for you, then there's no reason on Earth you should continue to just OCD your way through chronologically.

Jump around. Sample some Marvel, some DC, some Malibu. Do you like Peter David? Read his stuff. Do you like Bob Greenberger or Mike Friedman or Martin & Mangels? Read theirs. It's not like you have to physically dig through a pile of aging newsprint, or have to use any care to keep them organized.

 

[tranya]

My personal favorite era was the DC run from just after TWOK through Voyage Home... The Mirror Universe saga was fun, and I found it really wonderfully creative how Mike Barr (?) and his collaborators dealt with writing an ongoing series during the "trilogy" movies. First, an Enterprise without Spock for a while, then after Spock was revived and the Enterprise was gone, putting Spock in his own command while giving Kirk et al the Excelsior, then figuring out a way to zap everything back so the TVH would make sense. Also, a great early (first?) Annual, which told the first adventure of the Enterprise -- to that point, I think these were unquestionably the best Trek comics out there, and I'd love to revisit them and see if they still hold up.

Oh, and there are some great one-shots in there -- I very fondly remember a Diane Duane/Gray Morrow story that was Spock/McCoy-centric, involving Bones dealing with the remnants of Spock's katra.

 

[jgdst]

Thanks for the replies I think I'm going to read a few more of the Gold Key comics first - I've got a kind of morbid curiosity to see how many more redshirts can be abused.

I think I'll follow up with some of the ones mentioned here, maybe Elite Force too. I'm tempted to take a peek at the New Frontier comics, but I've only read the first four books at the moment (the rest are on a rather lengthy list of essential reading). Can I jump straight into the comics without having read the books, or will that ruin any upcoming plot points?

Sorry about asking more questions! I'll probably have more as I carry on, so feel free to ignore them if I start posting hundreds

 

[Christopher]

I'm tempted to take a peek at the New Frontier comics, but I've only read the first four books at the moment (the rest are on a rather lengthy list of essential reading). Can I jump straight into the comics without having read the books, or will that ruin any upcoming plot points?

There's only one NF comic on the disk, the Double Time graphic novel. It's best read in its proper sequence in the series, which would be between Captain's Table: Once Burned and Double Helix #5: Double or Nothing (which are in turn between books 6 & 7 of the regular series).