Funny, odd, amazing things in the ST Comics

[NCC-73515]

I just got the Complete Collection DVD (all issues from 1967-2002), and find many interesting, funny, and odd things in the earliest comic books already.

(Mods, please advise: Is sharing individual panels or parts of pages ok?)

In the very first issue, Spock uses colorful language, and they destroy a whole planet with their lasers!

In the Goldkey timeline, number 45 (which we've caught up with and passed in real life) was this guy:

And Kirk doesn't know basic astronomy

The Enterprise nacelles also are called and look like rockets, and the consoles have levers, 60s radio mics, valve wheels,... slowly, issue by issue, the bridge looks more like in the show, but Kirk has a pink chair.

I love it, it's hilarious to read these alternate universe stories 50 years later!

 

[ryan123450]

Yes the Gold Keys and the UK comics are crazy! My go to example though is one of the first few issues of DC’s TNG comics where Picard and crew actually, literally, meet Santa Claus.

 

[indianatrekker26]

I remember an issue from Marvel's first run post-TMP where Kirk and crew caught with Knomes. And another where Kirk became a Egyptian Pharaoh lol

 

[Avro Arrow]

(Mods, please advise: Is sharing individual panels or parts of pages ok?)

I don't think reproducing a few panels for illustrative purposes is going to cause any problems.

Nothing says "Star Trek" quite like total planetary annihilation!

Sadly, capes never made their big 2010s comeback in the real world.

Is Spock... pantomiming his explanation in the next panel??

 

[NCC-73515]

Is Spock... pantomiming his explanation in the next panel??

That's when they lose control and are pulled into it

 

[publiusr]

Those were bad plants

 

[F. King Daniel]

I love Gold Key. Blond Scotty in Green?

I read there was an IDW Waypoint one-off in Gold Key style, and I've really got to hunt it down one day.

Also the early UK comic strips starring Captain Kurt (no, really. And they were a licensed product!), who was a redshirt, the Enterprise landing.

Oh, and an Enterprise that looked like THIS:

(Fun fact, at infants school there was a Dinky Toy U.S.S. Enterprise I ALWAYS played with. Someone had painted the whole thing red and I never understood why. Once I saw this, I wondered if it was what they recognised the toy from and "fixed" the colour!)

Then we move to the first DC Next Gen miniseries, where everyone was a beefcake and had every issue had at least one meme-able moment:

 

[NCC-73515]

Too bad the UK strips aren't on the DVD

A new gem from Goldkey

 

[Therin of Andor]

The Mego "Neptunian", the 8" action figure that had never appeared on "Star Trek", made an appearance as the penal administrator of Neptune Station in IDW's comic mini-series, "The Next Generation: Mirror Broken" (issue #4). Dr Teusta Fonn the Neptunian was a pioneer of the Mirror Universe's agonizer technology.


Mirror Broken 4.2 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

And Dr Fonn's guards were based upon... original Mego 8" Gorn, the ones that were molded in brown using Marvel villain sculpt of The Lizard.


Mirror Universe Mego Gorn guards by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[NCC-73515]

A Space Station Odyssey.....

Gay senoritas in old California XD

And that would've been so much better than ENT's decon jelly rub chamber

 

[Therin of Andor]

Amazing Spider-Man and ST:TMP by Ian McLean, on Flickr

Peter Parker and friends attend a screening of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" ("Amazing Spider-Man" #203, April 1980).


Amazing Spider-Man and ST:TMP, part 2 by Ian McLean, on Flickr


Amazing Spider-Man and ST:TMP, part 3 by Ian McLean, on Flickr

 

[Turtletrekker]

I love that Peter David included characters from Bloom County in one DC Comics run and Spaceman Spiff from Calvin and Hobbes in the next.

 

[dstyer]

I love that Peter David included characters from Bloom County in one DC Comics run and Spaceman Dpiff from Calvin and Hobbes in the next.

From Star Trek (DC) #51 - first series

 

[Allyn Gibson]

A Space Station Odyssey.....

Early on in the pandemic, I bought a couple of facemasks with Gold Key Star Trek artwork. One of the masks has the Enteprise and the unfinished 2001 space station.

 

[Csalem]

A Space Station Odyssey.....

Mr Scott looks very much like Mr Spock.

 

[Christopher]

Peter Parker and friends attend a screening of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" ("Amazing Spider-Man" #203, April 1980).

In an issue written and edited by Marv Wolfman, who was also editor of Marvel's Star Trek comic that picked up after TMP. So it was a cross-promotion. By the same token, Marvel's version of Dracula appeared as an illusory character in Star Trek #4-5 (well, one of the two, I forget which).

 

[F. King Daniel]

Everyone remembers Captain Kirk. Everyone remembers Captain Archer. Everyone knows Captain Pike.

But what about the Enterprise's Captain Zarlo from Gold Key? I wanna know more about this guy and his obsession with N.M.E. drills

 

[Avro Arrow]

Interestingly, the theatre across the street seems to be showing The Black Hole. I was basically aware that both were "70s movies", but I had no idea both were in theatres at the same time. Sure enough, I checked Wikipedia, and both were released in December of 1979. (So *barely* 70s movies! )

Although, it looks like TMP came out on December 7, and The Black Hole didn't come out until December 21. Was TMP really popular enough in real life that it would be lined up "around the block" a full two weeks (or possibly longer) after its release?

 

[Christopher]

Although, it looks like TMP came out on December 7, and The Black Hole didn't come out until December 21. Was TMP really popular enough in real life that it would be lined up "around the block" a full two weeks (or possibly longer) after its release?

Possibly. Movies were in theaters far, far longer then, often for months. And despite its reputation, I believe that TMP was actually the most successful Trek movie at the box office (correcting for inflation) until 2009. Though that's partly because it was in theaters so long.

 

[Extrocomp]

In an issue written and edited by Marv Wolfman, who was also editor of Marvel's Star Trek comic that picked up after TMP. So it was a cross-promotion. By the same token, Marvel's version of Dracula appeared as an illusory character in Star Trek #4-5 (well, one of the two, I forget which).

Not quite an illusion. They never explained exactly how the Klingon thought-enhancer works, but Dracula was real enough to murder the Regulun ambassador and to register as a solid, living being on the tricorder.

Interestingly, Kirk and Spock both refer to the Dracula legend, indicating that in the Star Trek universe, Dracula originated from folklore instead of a novel.