Star Trek comics on DVD

[mmtz]

Now that GIT Corp. has formally announced tentative release dates for the DVD collections of Star Trek comics, prices are popping up here and there, but not on Amazon yet. It looks like the typical price will be around $35 to $40 for the first collection which includes all comics published up to 2005 except Gold Key. Haven't seen a price for the second collection which has the Gold Key comics. Don't forget that the first 40 Gold Key comics are also available as free downloads from Wowio.

My aching back is looking forward to the day when I don't have to move heavy comic boxes around to find a particular Star Trek comic that's at the bottom of a stack of boxes.

 

[Christopher]

Actually what's been announced is that the first collection contains everything prior to 2005, Gold Key included. The second is TOS only, which presumably would also include the Gold Key material.

 

[mmtz]

Actually what's been announced is that the first collection contains everything prior to 2005, Gold Key included. The second is TOS only, which presumably would also include the Gold Key material.

that makes sense since the title of the first DVD is the complete collection

I suppose the second collection for TOS only is related to release of a new TOS movie?

 

[Christopher]

^^I don't know, but it stands to reason that it would be a factor. Also, TOS is still pretty much the best-known and most popular Trek series. And it's the one that has the most comics about it, all told, so it's the most natural candidate for a standalone collection.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Everything prior to IDW is supposed to be included. Including the newspaper strips.

 

[Steve Roby]

Really looking forward to this, though there's not going to be much there I don't already have in print form. Guess I'll just need to buy the first one; I'm not so completist that I have to buy a DVD-ROM with a subset of the material on a DVD-ROM I already own.

I'd grumble about wowio having only the first 40 issues of the Gold Key comics, because I think I need one or two of the later issues... but not being in the USA, I can't use wowio anyway.

 

[Christopher]

Everything prior to IDW is supposed to be included. Including the newspaper strips.

That's the first I've heard about the newspaper strips being included. What the person at NY Comic-Con told me was "all four companies" -- which I take to mean Gold Key, Marvel, DC/Wildstorm, and Malibu.

It would be great if the newspaper strips were included, but aren't there some rights problems or something? As I recall, the contracts were burned in a fire so there's no way to determine who has the publication rights, or something like that.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I have it on good authority that the comic strips will be there.

 

[JD]

Holy shit, only $35-$40 for every single Star Trek comic prior to IDW! I've never seen one of these collections before, so I assumed it would be like hundreds of dollars. Will this be available in stores like Wal-Mart or Target, or will it only be available online.

 

[toughlittleship]

I'll be getting this. The DS9 comics were great.

 

[Therin of Andor]

the contracts were burned in a fire so there's no way to determine who has the publication rights.

Re: the strips. Some of the on-loan original artwork was supposedly destroyed in a fire at Nostalgiaworld during preparation of their reprint booklets.

Copyright is still with Paramount/CBS, but the problem with the contracts, IIRC, was that no one at LA Times Syndicate or Paramount could locate their file copies, and not all the now-scattered contributors had kept their original contracts either, although it was known that the various artists and writers had negotiated different royalty rates when they were originally signed to the strip - and John Ordover, when researching for a possible Pocket reprint collection, found that all the old agreements would have to be renegotiated (expensive!), including with the estate of the now-deceased Thomas Warkentin.

I guess someone was prepared to make all the new agreements, but it seems amazing the DVD-ROMs are going to be so cheap for such a complete collection.

 

[HIj'Qa]

I have it on good authority that the comic strips will be there.

Does this include the British strips, Joe 90 etc, or only the LA Times?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I guess someone was prepared to make all the new agreements, but it seems amazing the DVD-ROMs are going to be so cheap for such a complete collection.

I doubt very much that GIT made new contracts with the newspaper strip creators. The original contracts probably never dealt with electronic reprint rights, and GIT may have negotiated directly with CBS, assuming that as CBS held the copyright the electronic rights would belong to them. At a guess, like Marvel's comics online initiative, creators probably aren't going to receive royalties for sales of these DVDs.

 

[Christopher]

^^Oh, that's too bad. I'm looking forward to reading the newspaper strips, but it sucks when the creators don't get royalties.

 

[JoeZhang]

This is great news - I only wish someone would come up with a usable (DRM'd - so people get paid) format. Something similar to .cbz or .cbr that the pirates currently use. For reading, PDF is awful.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The original contracts probably never dealt with electronic reprint rights, and GIT may have negotiated directly with CBS, assuming that as CBS held the copyright the electronic rights would belong to them. At a guess, like Marvel's comics online initiative, creators probably aren't going to receive royalties for sales of these DVDs.

Sad. Logical - and great for the fans' pocketbooks - but sad. I'd gladly pay a much higher price and know a (small) royalty was helping to acknowledge the creators' work.

 

[RookieBatman]

Wow! All of the pre-IDW's in one $40 DVD; that actually is going to be a pretty good deal for me, even with all the issues I do already have. That'll let me fill out my Gold Key collection, two issues of the first Marvel series I don't have, a couple DC specials, and a lot of the new Marvel issues. And I'm really excited about the newspaper series, too. I bought the first little magazine collection thingy, but was a little sad that I probably wouldn't be getting the rest.
Overall, very good news!

 

[ronny]

I'm REALLY looking forward to this. Pre IDW all I have is the David Mack series and a handful of trade reprints.

 

[ATimson]

^^Oh, that's too bad. I'm looking forward to reading the newspaper strips, but it sucks when the creators don't get royalties.

Conceptually, yes, but with the sheer number of comics involved, at only $40 they'd be making fractions of a penny per copy. Yes, acknowledgment would be nice, but I'm doubting they'd cover the cost of driving to the bank to deposit the check.

 

[Christopher]

^^They have direct deposit these days...