Marvel's Star Trek Comics (1980-82)

[Christopher]

One other non-TMP source that was referenced in the '80s Marvel series was the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology. Issue 6 shows the Republic as a class of ship from the SFC (Baton Rouge class), and issue 9 gives dates that establish the story as taking place in 2214, which is close to the SFC timeline, though a few years early (according to Memory Beta, the SFC apparently put TMP in 2217).

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've been immersing myself in TMP-era stuff lately, partly as research for the TMP-era portions of Forgotten History and partly for fun, and I just finished a read-through of the Marvel series (not counting the TMP adaptation).

Have you read Marvel's Untold Voyages series, from their '90s Trek comics? I've been thinking about checking that out one I finish the DC TNG arc I'm reading.

Don't forget the post-TMP comics (not included in the comic collection DVD), which can be found here.

 

[Greg Cox]

I read these on the Comics DVD and was struck by how many rediculous stories there were. Dracula, Gnomes, Ghosts, etc. I know they were working under limitations, but seriously? There were a few hard scifi stories as I recall that were far better than the majroity in terms of story quality.

As I recall, the issue with the Dracula cameo was done by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan, who were also doing Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA series at the time, so that was probably a bit of an in-joke. (It was only one or two panels, right?)

Or maybe they just had Dracula on the brain . . . .

 

[Christopher]

Marv Wolfman wrote, yes, but Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson illustrated the issue. It was two pages' worth of material, and it included Spock saying that "Dracula was an Earth legend who supposedly survived 500 years until slain by a man named Quincy Harker. There were reports of his return, but they proved to be unfounded!" Since there's no "Quincy Harker" in Stoker's Dracula, I'm assuming that's a Marvel character.

Although "Dracula" and the other supernatural visitations were actually mental projections which a Klingon device drew from the mind of a horror-film archivist, as part of a convoluted plot to capture the Enterprise so they could study its new engines. Interesting that both of Marvel's post-TMP comic series, this one and Untold Voyages, opened with stories about the Klingons trying to capture the refitted Enterprise. But the latter one didn't involve anything as, err, creative as what Marv Wolfman came up with. Capture the ship by attacking it from inside with solid mental projections of old movie monsters? Why, that's a much more straightforward and effective scheme than just surrounding it and shooting at it!

 

[Cadet49]

I read these on the Comics DVD and was struck by how many rediculous stories there were. Dracula, Gnomes, Ghosts, etc. I know they were working under limitations, but seriously?

Sure, it's not like Star Trek would ever have done an episode about a haunted house, or Jack the Ripper, or Alice and the White Rabbit...

...or a recreation of the Old West, meeting a Greek God, Romans in Space ...
Seriously, those bizarre, Twilight Zone-ish episodes that made the classic Trek so great ... you never knew what to expect "out there"!

I just recently read those 80s Marvel comics, and thought many of them were great - really keeping with the tone of TOS.

 

[Relayer1]

I read these on the Comics DVD and was struck by how many rediculous stories there were. Dracula, Gnomes, Ghosts, etc. I know they were working under limitations, but seriously?

Sure, it's not like Star Trek would ever have done an episode about a haunted house, or Jack the Ripper, or Alice and the White Rabbit...

...or a recreation of the Old West, meeting a Greek God, Romans in Space ...
Seriously, those bizarre, Twilight Zone-ish episodes that made the classic Trek so great ... you never knew what to expect "out there"!

I just recently read those 80s Marvel comics, and thought many of them were great - really keeping with the tone of TOS.

Or another viewpoint would be that canon they may be, but that's what made classic Trek sometimes, er, pants...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I say it made it fun!
Big, epic and fantastical stuff like the Enterprise crew being the Milky Way's antibodies against an 11,000 mile-long invading space amoeba? Awesome stuff.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sure, it's not like Star Trek would ever have done an episode about a haunted house, or Jack the Ripper, or Alice and the White Rabbit...

...or a recreation of the Old West, meeting a Greek God, Romans in Space ...
Seriously, those bizarre, Twilight Zone-ish episodes that made the classic Trek so great ... you never knew what to expect "out there"!

I just recently read those 80s Marvel comics, and thought many of them were great - really keeping with the tone of TOS.

Or another viewpoint would be that canon they may be, but that's what made classic Trek sometimes, er, pants...

Don't forget Abraham Lincoln, Don Juan, Leonardo da Vinci, and women who turn into cats . . . and vise versa!

I gotta admit: I love the wilder, more fantastical aspects of TOS. I hope STAR TREK never takes itself so seriously that they can't run into Dracula or a giant floating hand once in a while . . . .

 

[DorkBoy [TM]]

Congratulations guys, you made me pull out my DVD collection (Goodreader + iPad = win) and start re-reading the Marvel run. I am a sucker for the TMP era.

I'm also painstakingly combining jpegs into PDFs with Acrobat now ... thanks for the link!

 

[BillJ]

I gotta admit: I love the wilder, more fantastical aspects of TOS. I hope STAR TREK never takes itself so seriously that they can't run into Dracula or a giant floating hand once in a while . . . .

This. First and foremost I want Star Trek to be entertaining.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I was doing a reread of the Marvel Comic Star Trek series and felt like doing some extra reading on it because I'm having so much fun. Ordinarily I wouldn't resurrect such an ancient thread but...

Marv Wolfman wrote, yes, but Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson illustrated the issue. It was two pages' worth of material, and it included Spock saying that "Dracula was an Earth legend who supposedly survived 500 years until slain by a man named Quincy Harker. There were reports of his return, but they proved to be unfounded!" Since there's no "Quincy Harker" in Stoker's Dracula, I'm assuming that's a Marvel character.

You're right and you're wrong. Quincy [sic] Harker was a character in the Tomb of Dracula series and-as I recall-did kill Dracula in the last issue. So that was a direct reference to the comic series...

However... Quincey Harker was created by Stoker. He was the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker referenced at the end of the novel. He was only an infant so clearly he did not slay Dracula in Stoker's novel.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was doing a reread of the Marvel Comic Star Trek series and felt like doing some extra reading on it because I'm having so much fun. Ordinarily I wouldn't resurrect such an ancient thread but...

Marv Wolfman wrote, yes, but Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson illustrated the issue. It was two pages' worth of material, and it included Spock saying that "Dracula was an Earth legend who supposedly survived 500 years until slain by a man named Quincy Harker. There were reports of his return, but they proved to be unfounded!" Since there's no "Quincy Harker" in Stoker's Dracula, I'm assuming that's a Marvel character.

You're right and you're wrong. Quincy [sic] Harker was a character in the Tomb of Dracula series and-as I recall-did kill Dracula in the last issue. So that was a direct reference to the comic series...

However... Quincey Harker was created-or at the very least inspired-by Stoker. He was the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker referenced at the end of the novel. He was only an infant so clearly he did not slay Dracula in Stoker's novel.

Exactly. It should be also be noted that little baby Quincey was named after Quincy Morris, a comrade of the Harkers who died in the final encounter with Dracula in the the novel. Marv Wolfman picked up on this in the comics, portraying Quincey Harker as an elderly man who has devoted his life to slaying Dracula once and for all.

Assisted by Rachel Van Helsing, of course!

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I was doing a reread of the Marvel Comic Star Trek series and felt like doing some extra reading on it because I'm having so much fun. Ordinarily I wouldn't resurrect such an ancient thread but...

Marv Wolfman wrote, yes, but Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson illustrated the issue. It was two pages' worth of material, and it included Spock saying that "Dracula was an Earth legend who supposedly survived 500 years until slain by a man named Quincy Harker. There were reports of his return, but they proved to be unfounded!" Since there's no "Quincy Harker" in Stoker's Dracula, I'm assuming that's a Marvel character.

You're right and you're wrong. Quincy [sic] Harker was a character in the Tomb of Dracula series and-as I recall-did kill Dracula in the last issue. So that was a direct reference to the comic series...

However... Quincey Harker was created-or at the very least inspired-by Stoker. He was the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker referenced at the end of the novel. He was only an infant so clearly he did not slay Dracula in Stoker's novel.

Exactly. It should be also be noted that little baby Quincey was named after Quincy Morris, a comrade of the Harkers who died in the final encounter with Dracula in the the novel.

Played by Billy "The Outrageous Okona" Campbell in Bram Stoker's Dracula. I do loves me the Trek connection.

 

[Greg Cox]

I was doing a reread of the Marvel Comic Star Trek series and felt like doing some extra reading on it because I'm having so much fun. Ordinarily I wouldn't resurrect such an ancient thread but...





You're right and you're wrong. Quincy [sic] Harker was a character in the Tomb of Dracula series and-as I recall-did kill Dracula in the last issue. So that was a direct reference to the comic series...

However... Quincey Harker was created-or at the very least inspired-by Stoker. He was the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker referenced at the end of the novel. He was only an infant so clearly he did not slay Dracula in Stoker's novel.

Exactly. It should be also be noted that little baby Quincey was named after Quincy Morris, a comrade of the Harkers who died in the final encounter with Dracula in the the novel.

Played by Billy "The Outrageous Okona" Campbell in Bram Stoker's Dracula. I do loves me the Trek connection.

Surely you mean Jordan Collier of THE 4400 . . . .

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I'm pretty sure I meant Cliff Secord aka The Rocketeer.

 

[Daddy Todd]

You're all wrong, it was Dr. Jon Fielding from Tales of the City.