Just a heads up: Issue #1 of comic book legend John Byrne's "Assignment Earth" miniseries from IDW hits the shelves on Wednesday this week. Sheer & happy coincidence that it comes just after the airing of the remastered episode earlier this month.
Here's some PR for the book from when it was first announced, plus a link to a Newsarama interview with him about the title, as well as about the Romulans issue he did for IDW's Aliens Spotlight series, his first-ever full-length Star Trek work, which had its omnibus trade paperback edition released just last week. (Including a highly regarded Borg spotlight by yours truly. [/shameless plug.])
After "Assignment Earth," Byrne will do do a two-part sequel to his Romulans spotlight, entitled "The Hollow Crown", to debut later this year.
Byrne Interview:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4946158&postcount=1
Original PR:
IDW Publishing Rockets Into STAR TREK®: SECOND STAGE
For its sophomore Starfleet year, IDW launches titles by top Star Trek storytellers from comics, books and television.
San Diego, CA (January 2, 2008)—In its first year of Star Trek storytelling, IDW Publishing blasted off the launch pad with marquee titles like Star Trek: Year Four, the hit miniseries Klingons: Blood Will Tell and the fan-favorite Alien Spotlight one-shots.
Now, for its sophomore cycle, IDW will take its titles to the next level with STAR TREK: SECOND STAGE, an all-new publishing lineup showcasing some of the top Star Trek storytellers in comics, books and television. Among the creators: fan-favorite comic book writer and novelist Peter David, legendary comics artist John Byrne, IDW’s new rising stars Scott & David Tipton, and the grande dame of Star Trek writing, D.C. Fontana.
“We’re incredibly proud of the work that we produced in our first year of Star Trek publishing, and the quality of those titles has really allowed us to recruit some of the best Star Trek storytellers from across several different mediums,” says IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “In the first year, we took the IDW starship on its shakedown cruise. For 2008, we’re taking the storytelling beyond the Final Frontier.”
“This will really be an epic year for Star Trek, and we want to make sure our books do justice to the scope of it all,” says IDW Star Trek editor Andrew Steven Harris, who together with Ryall conceived of and assembled the teams for SECOND STAGE. “We’re expanding our slate of titles to four issues a month, so that there’s a feeling of weekly appointment reading for our audience, like a Star Trek TV show. At the same time, we want each title to have the significance of a Star Trek film, so that each series is a seminal comics event. That’s the level that we’re shooting for with STAR TREK: SECOND STAGE.”
Titles launching in the opening months of SECOND STAGE include:
MAY — STAR TREK: ASSIGNMENT EARTH
Comics icon John Byrne provides a prequel to the SECOND STAGE titles with the February finale of IDW’s Alien Spotlight series in an issue showcasing the Romulans, the writer/artist’s first-ever illustrated Star Trek story in a decades-spanning career. But in May, Byrne will unveil his first full-blown Star Trek comic series, the five-part, time-jumping Star Trek: Assignment Earth.
The original TV episode "Assignment Earth" had been the Season Two finale for the Star Trek series, which introduced the cryptic character Gary Seven and was intended by Gene Roddenberry as the pilot for a spin-off series that never came to pass. Now, however, Byrne will bring Roddenberry’s dream to life, delivering the spin-off 40 years after it would have debuted. The series tells the tale of the interstellar time traveler and his Earth-born assistant as they covertly confront threats to the past so that they can save Star Trek’s future.
Byrne will both write and draw the series, which steps one year forward with each installment, beginning with 1968, the year that the original "Assignment Earth" episode aired and its spin-off series would have debuted.
Here's some PR for the book from when it was first announced, plus a link to a Newsarama interview with him about the title, as well as about the Romulans issue he did for IDW's Aliens Spotlight series, his first-ever full-length Star Trek work, which had its omnibus trade paperback edition released just last week. (Including a highly regarded Borg spotlight by yours truly. [/shameless plug.])
After "Assignment Earth," Byrne will do do a two-part sequel to his Romulans spotlight, entitled "The Hollow Crown", to debut later this year.
Byrne Interview:
http://forum.newsarama.com/showpost.php?p=4946158&postcount=1
Original PR:
IDW Publishing Rockets Into STAR TREK®: SECOND STAGE
For its sophomore Starfleet year, IDW launches titles by top Star Trek storytellers from comics, books and television.
San Diego, CA (January 2, 2008)—In its first year of Star Trek storytelling, IDW Publishing blasted off the launch pad with marquee titles like Star Trek: Year Four, the hit miniseries Klingons: Blood Will Tell and the fan-favorite Alien Spotlight one-shots.
Now, for its sophomore cycle, IDW will take its titles to the next level with STAR TREK: SECOND STAGE, an all-new publishing lineup showcasing some of the top Star Trek storytellers in comics, books and television. Among the creators: fan-favorite comic book writer and novelist Peter David, legendary comics artist John Byrne, IDW’s new rising stars Scott & David Tipton, and the grande dame of Star Trek writing, D.C. Fontana.
“We’re incredibly proud of the work that we produced in our first year of Star Trek publishing, and the quality of those titles has really allowed us to recruit some of the best Star Trek storytellers from across several different mediums,” says IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “In the first year, we took the IDW starship on its shakedown cruise. For 2008, we’re taking the storytelling beyond the Final Frontier.”
“This will really be an epic year for Star Trek, and we want to make sure our books do justice to the scope of it all,” says IDW Star Trek editor Andrew Steven Harris, who together with Ryall conceived of and assembled the teams for SECOND STAGE. “We’re expanding our slate of titles to four issues a month, so that there’s a feeling of weekly appointment reading for our audience, like a Star Trek TV show. At the same time, we want each title to have the significance of a Star Trek film, so that each series is a seminal comics event. That’s the level that we’re shooting for with STAR TREK: SECOND STAGE.”
Titles launching in the opening months of SECOND STAGE include:
MAY — STAR TREK: ASSIGNMENT EARTH
Comics icon John Byrne provides a prequel to the SECOND STAGE titles with the February finale of IDW’s Alien Spotlight series in an issue showcasing the Romulans, the writer/artist’s first-ever illustrated Star Trek story in a decades-spanning career. But in May, Byrne will unveil his first full-blown Star Trek comic series, the five-part, time-jumping Star Trek: Assignment Earth.
The original TV episode "Assignment Earth" had been the Season Two finale for the Star Trek series, which introduced the cryptic character Gary Seven and was intended by Gene Roddenberry as the pilot for a spin-off series that never came to pass. Now, however, Byrne will bring Roddenberry’s dream to life, delivering the spin-off 40 years after it would have debuted. The series tells the tale of the interstellar time traveler and his Earth-born assistant as they covertly confront threats to the past so that they can save Star Trek’s future.
Byrne will both write and draw the series, which steps one year forward with each installment, beginning with 1968, the year that the original "Assignment Earth" episode aired and its spin-off series would have debuted.
