I haven't read too much of IDW's stuff, but I'm consistently disappointed with the artwork I see from it.
DC's Star Trek Comics
- Thread starter Trek Survivor
- Start date
I haven't read too much of IDW's stuff, but I'm consistently disappointed with the artwork I see from it.
I do believe that DC's original Star Trek series was really the first time I started following a title on a monthly basis. Loved the whole run, and I can honestly say that it was really responsible for turning me from a casual fan into a Trekkie. I thought the whole timeframe set between Star Trek III and Star Trek IV was just awesome and liked how everything was neatly tied up so that it flowed into the latter film.
The only thing that came remotely close to topping that for me was Marvel's Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages.
The Wildstorm era was good, but I was always itching for them to do an ongoing series featuring never-before-seen characters like Marvel did before them. Ditto for IDW.
The only thing that came remotely close to topping that for me was Marvel's Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages.
The Wildstorm era was good, but I was always itching for them to do an ongoing series featuring never-before-seen characters like Marvel did before them. Ditto for IDW.
Yeah, I know, but for me reading comics like this just isn't the same as a nice TPB/hardcover collection.
Cool replies guys!
I've been wanting to read DC's Star Trek comics. I remember seeing them as a kid, with the photorealistic covers, but then being disappointed by the interior art. I never gave it a chance, and I was pretty snobby towards comic adaptations of movies and TV shows. They weren't "real" like the shows and movies were. Nothing that happened in the comics universe really counted.
Now I need a fix for more 80s/early 90s Star Trek. We got quite a good run with TNG but I wish I could have seen more episodes with K'helyr for example. And guess what, she returns in the DC comics! I gotta read that one. Adara makes a return as well, a character I was hoping would come back in the show.
And I really like the TOS films. I loved the look of the red uniforms, the original crew being there but "updated," everything being grander in scale. But we only got 6 films. I'd love to see more of that era, and DC had that covered too.
It's funny because I thought Star Trek comics would be boring back then, and that the superhero stuff was more cutting edge, somehow newer and flashier. But most of the comics I was reading by the start of the 90s were turning to crap. And the stuff I dismissed as not counting and probably limited, probably allowed more leeway creatively than the the writers had trying to coordinate 5 different Batman titles for one drawn out storyline meant to be collected but not really read (Knightfall). I'm looking forward to reading these comics.
Now I need a fix for more 80s/early 90s Star Trek. We got quite a good run with TNG but I wish I could have seen more episodes with K'helyr for example. And guess what, she returns in the DC comics! I gotta read that one. Adara makes a return as well, a character I was hoping would come back in the show.
And I really like the TOS films. I loved the look of the red uniforms, the original crew being there but "updated," everything being grander in scale. But we only got 6 films. I'd love to see more of that era, and DC had that covered too.
It's funny because I thought Star Trek comics would be boring back then, and that the superhero stuff was more cutting edge, somehow newer and flashier. But most of the comics I was reading by the start of the 90s were turning to crap. And the stuff I dismissed as not counting and probably limited, probably allowed more leeway creatively than the the writers had trying to coordinate 5 different Batman titles for one drawn out storyline meant to be collected but not really read (Knightfall). I'm looking forward to reading these comics.
I had similar thoughts about them when I was younger, too, and also dismissed them unfairly. I been taking my time with them, and really enjoying them. I also like them as Star Trek stories with the 80's vibe, the uniforms and ships updated to look like the movie era. The writers mostly work their stories between the movies in a fun way, and came up with an exciting status-quo for adventures between TSFS and TVH. I still wouldn't really watch the movies and imagine the comic adventures happening between them; it's more like the comics exist in their own narrative space and recalibrate their direction if they have to when a new movie came out. There are some original characters that carry through the different phases of the Volume 1 series, who's story arcs I've liked following.
I have a lot of nostalgic affection for the first DC Star Trek series, particularly the early issues written by Mike W. Barr and the run by Peter David at the tail end. The three annuals from the first series are all really strong, too. The first annual tells the first mission under Kirk's captaincy, the second has the final mission of the 5YM, and the third tells the story of the love of Scotty's life.
Me neither. Partly because I really disliked the new artist who took over for Patrick Zircher, partly because the four-part time travel storyline that preceded the final two issues worked beautifully as a series finale.
The symphony, no. The television show? Yeah, probably. Why frustrate yourself? I'm rather reluctant to get started on arc driven shows to begin with, simply because I'm never sure if they're going to pay off. Babylon 5 and The X-Files both burned me there.
John Byrne's Trek output from IDW was very good. I was a fan of his New Visions series and the Romulans: Pawns of War storyline.
Tom Sutton, the main penciller for the first DC run, struggled with likeness and tech. Though there are a lot of top notch stories like "Maggie's World", "The Trouble with Bearclaw" and "The Doomsday Bug". Gorden Purcell took over the pencils on DC's second run and the pencils were quite a bit better. With the tech and likeness being more in line with what we were seeing on the screen.
Tom Sutton's characters may not look much like the actors, and his Treknology looks more United Planets than United Federation of Planets, yet, for me, his art captures the idea of Star Trek. Curt Swan, in his issues here and there for DC, is much the same. I know what I'm looking at, even if it doesn't look exactly like the movies.
Making my way through DC Volume 1, Tom Sutton's style has really grown on me. I remember having one or two issues of the series as a kid, and the fact that Sutton is the main artist for most of the series is great because there's a consistent, reliable house-style on the visual front, which is a major aspect of a comic. It's more satisfying than when I read through the old Marvel Star Wars comic series, which changed it's main artist several time.
There's also a little bit of a nostalgic factor, now I have the whole series available, and they're all in that visual style I remember from those couple of issues I did have as a kid.
Accepting the art style let me feel free to allow the series to be an alternative take on Star Trek. It still felt like Star Trek, overall, in it's own way. I liked how Sutton sticks with Kirstie Alley's appearance for Saavik, even after the events of TSFS (even though I like and grew up with Robin Curtis as Saavik, since TSFS was the only ST I had on video at the time). I also like Sutton's version of the Excelsior bridge better than the set used for TSFS and TUC.
Occasionally the artists would "mess up" their depiction of the Enterprise, and this would sometimes result in an Enterprise that is something of a mix between the series and movie Enterprise. I actually find these valuable anomolies, when it comes to imagining the idea of a "real" Enterprise that the show and movies just depict very differently and have to justify as being almost totally new or totally rebuilt. Or alternatively, it's fun to imagine them as alternative possibilities for what the Enterprise might have looked like in a Phase II series.
There's also a little bit of a nostalgic factor, now I have the whole series available, and they're all in that visual style I remember from those couple of issues I did have as a kid.
Accepting the art style let me feel free to allow the series to be an alternative take on Star Trek. It still felt like Star Trek, overall, in it's own way. I liked how Sutton sticks with Kirstie Alley's appearance for Saavik, even after the events of TSFS (even though I like and grew up with Robin Curtis as Saavik, since TSFS was the only ST I had on video at the time). I also like Sutton's version of the Excelsior bridge better than the set used for TSFS and TUC.
Occasionally the artists would "mess up" their depiction of the Enterprise, and this would sometimes result in an Enterprise that is something of a mix between the series and movie Enterprise. I actually find these valuable anomolies, when it comes to imagining the idea of a "real" Enterprise that the show and movies just depict very differently and have to justify as being almost totally new or totally rebuilt. Or alternatively, it's fun to imagine them as alternative possibilities for what the Enterprise might have looked like in a Phase II series.
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