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Almost continuously since 1967, a number of companies have published comic book series based on Star Trek and its spin off series, including Gold Key, Marvel Comics, and DC Comics, with varying degrees of success. As of 2006, Star Trek: Enterprise remains the only Trek series that has yet to be adapted in comic book form.

The first Star Trek comic book, published in 1967 by Gold Key Comics This issue featured the only recorded instance of General Order 24 actually being carried out.

The first Star Trek comics were published by Gold Key between 1967 and 1978. Originally they were illustrated by Alberto Giolitti, an artist in Europe who had never seen the series and only had publicity photos to use as references. These comics were highly stylized and diverged wildly from the TV series continuity. Nonetheless they are fondly remembered by fans and a series of reprints of these original titles began to appear in 2004. The original issues, most of which featured photographic covers showing images from the series, are highly collectable. Writers included George Kashdan, Arnold Drake and Len Wein.^[1]

Most storylines used in the Gold Key series featured original characters and concepts, although later issues did include sequels to the TOS episodes "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Metamorphosis" and "I, Mudd".

Marvel's series of Star Trek comics began in 1979 with an adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and continued for another year, its tales presumably taking place during the apocryphal second five-year mission of Kirk and the Enterprise that would have been featured in the never-produced Star Trek: Phase II TV series. Marvel's license from Paramount prohibited them from utilizing concepts introduced in the original series, being restricted to only using the characters and concepts as they appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The series lasted a total of 18 issues, ending in 1981.

An unrelated comic strip adaptation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture was commissioned by McDonald's and was printed in serialized form on its first Happy Meal film promotion.

From 1969 to 1973, a series of weekly Star Trek comic strips ran in the British comic magazines Joe 90: Top Secret, TV21 & Joe 90 and Valiant and TV21. A total of 258 issues were produced, as well as hardcovers annuals of Joe 90 and TV21, and a softcover Valiant summer special. All were original stories. Two more annuals, under the Mighty TV Comic banner, also produced original Trek materials. In addition, the weekly TV Comic reprinted serialized versions of the U.S. Gold Key comics.^[2]

Then, from 1979 to 1983, the Los Angeles Times Mirror Syndicate produced a daily comic strip based upon Star Trek. The strip debuted on December 2, 1979 and ran until December 3, 1983. The storylines were written and illustrated by Thomas Warkentin, Sharman DiVono, Ron Harris, Larry Niven, Martin Pasko, Padraic Shigetani, Bob Meyers, Ernie Colon, Gerry Conway and Dick Kulpa.^[3]

Main article: Star Trek DC comics

The first DC series picked up immediately after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, beginning in 1984 but after eight issues started to place stories after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.^[4] In these later issues, Kirk, after a multi-issue showdown with the Mirror Universe, is given command of the Excelsior, while Spock, mentally restored after mind-melding with his mirror self, is given the command of the USS Surak. However, with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home taking place right after III left off, the series quickly wiped the slate clean by having Kirk lose command of the Excelsior and Spock return to the state he was at the end of III. After the release of The Voyage Home, the series continued with Kirk commanding the Enterprise-A. These later issues also re-introduced the characters of Arex and M'Ress from Star Trek: The Animated Series. In 1988, the series ended when Paramount withdrew its license.

After a year's hiatus DC's second Star Trek series began with an adaptation of Star Trek V and took place in the large gap between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI, but did not continue on from the previous series, so storylines from that series were either ignored or rewritten. Although more limited in scope than the first series due to restrictions from Paramount (which included a prohibition on creating non-series-related ongoing characters, resulting in R.J. Blaise - a popular character and love interest for Kirk - disappearing from the comic without explanation), the series lasted 80 issues and fleshed out some of the changes between V and VI, such as Sulu's promotion to captain of the Excelsior. As part of Paramount's increased restrictions on storytelling, planned appearances from Arex and M'Ress were shelved, with some formative artwork showing M'Ress (that appeared in a preview) re-drawn. The series was mainly written by Peter David and Howard Weinstein, who are also Star Trek novelists.^[5]

Main article: Star Trek: the Next Generation DC comics

DC also published two Star Trek: The Next Generation comic series. The first, a six-issue miniseries taking place during the first season, was published in 1988.^[6] An ongoing monthly series was launched from October 1989, covering from season two to just before Generations. The series was mainly written by Star Trek: The Next Generation novelist Michael Jan Friedman. The series would run until 1996.^[7]

At the same time DC was publishing its comics, Malibu published a Deep Space Nine series during the first three seasons, and DC and Malibu joined forces to publish a TNG/DS9 mini-series. DC also published one of the first crossovers between the TOS and TNG eras in another mini-series.

Beginning in 1993, Malibu published an ongoing series based upon Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and, as noted above, also joined forces with DC to publish a cross-over story with that company's TNG series. In addition, Malibu published a standalone issue focusing on the Romulans, and two issues of a "celebrity series" of stories written by Star Trek actors Mark Lenard and Aron Eisenberg.^[8][9]

In 1996, Malibu also announced plans to publish a Voyager comic, and art from this comic appeared in some comic industry periodicals. However, that year Paramount Pictures (owners of the Trek franchise), signed a deal with Marvel Comics to publish comics based upon Star Trek and Mission: Impossible under the new Paramount Comics banner. As a result, DC and Malibu abruptly lost the rights to publish Trek comics of their own.

Published in 2001 by the DC Comics, imprint Wildstorm, the Star Trek Special.

Marvel obtained the Star Trek license from 1996. Marvel published various one-shots.

The quarterly Star Trek Unlimited series covered TOS and TNG.^[10] Marvel published monthly comics based upon Deep Space Nine and Voyager.^[11][12]

They also introduced two new series, Star Trek: Early Voyages which dealt with Captain Christopher Pike's adventures as captain of the Enterprise (as depicted in the rejected TOS pilot "The Cage") and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy which dealt with a group of cadets, including Deep Space Nine's Ferengi, Nog.

Fan acceptance of these comics got off to a shaky start when Marvel's inaugural publication of its new Star Trek line turned out to be a crossover between TOS and Marvel's popular superhero team, the X-Men. (This was later followed by a subsequent X-Men/TNG crossover, as well as a novel entitled Planet X based on this premise published by Pocket Books). However, the different series turned out to be relatively popular, with Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages registering strong sales. The writing in "Early Voyages," from Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett, was quite good, and generally accurate with existing canon.^{[citation needed]}

After about a year, however, Marvel's agreement with Paramount changed and similar restrictions to those imposed upon DC^{[citation needed]} resulted in Starfleet Academy and Early Voyages being abruptly cancelled, even though Early Voyages was in the middle of story arcs at the time.^[13][14]

Marvel continued to publish TV-based Trek comics for another year or so, but eventually the license drifted back to DC's Wildstorm inprint. Wildstorm decided to not do an ongoing series, but instead a series of miniseries and trade paperback graphic novels from 1999 onwards. Writers included Nathan Archer, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith,^[15], Keith R.A. DeCandido.^[16], Scott Ciencin^[17], Kevin J. Anderson^[18], K. W. Jeter^[19], John Ordover and David Mack.^[20]

Their TNG series mainly dealt with the movie era, between Insurrection and Nemesis; their Deep Space Nine stories were based on the post-Season 7 novel continuity, and their Voyager series took place during the series. Wildstorm also created comics based on the novel series New Frontier (written by series creator Peter David)^[21] and the video game Elite Force.

Their license expired in 2002.

For several years, no comic book company held the rights to publish Trek-based comics. However, in October 2004, Tokyopop announced plans to publish an anthology of Next Generation-based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga. No publication date has been announced as of October 2005.

Another project by Tokyopop, based upon the original series, has also been announced. The new comic, produced by Joshua Ortega, has a release date of September 5, 2006. Five manga artists and five manga writers team up to present five new stories based on the original series. [1]

On November 9, 2006, IDW Publishing announced that they had secured the publishing rights to Star Trek from CBS Consumer Products.^[22]

IDW's first title, The Space Between, is a six six-issue miniseries, and launched in January 2007. The Space Between is written by David Tischman and drawn by Casey Maloney.^[23] The second series Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell, will launch in April, focusing on the Klingons.^[24]

1. ^ Curt Danhauser. Guide to the Gold Key Star Trek Comics. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
2. ^ Rich Handley. The Star Trek Comic Strips. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
3. ^ Los Angeles Times Syndicate Star Trek newspaper comic strip. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
4. ^ First Star Trek monthly series from DC Comics, 1984-1988. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
5. ^ Second Star Trek monthly series from DC Comics, 1989-1996. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
6. ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation mini-series from DC Comics, 1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
7. ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation monthly series from DC Comics, 1989-1996. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
8. ^ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine monthly series from Malibu Comics, 1993-1995. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
9. ^ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Celebrity Series from Malibu Comics, 1995. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
10. ^ Star Trek: Unlimited monthly series from Marvel Paramount Comics, 1996-1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
11. ^ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine monthly series from Marvel Comics, 1996-1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
12. ^ Star Trek: Voyager monthly series from Marvel Comics, 1996-1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
13. ^ Star Trek: Early Voyages monthly series from Marvel Comics, 1997-1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
14. ^ Star Trek: Starfleet Academy monthly series from Marvel Comics, 1996-1998. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
15. ^ Star Trek: Voyager - Planet Killer mini-series from Wildstorm Comics, 2001. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
16. ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation mini-series from Wildstorm, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
17. ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation mini-series from Wildstorm, 2000-2001. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
18. ^ Star Trek: The Next Generation graphic novels from Wildstorm, 2001-2002. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
19. ^ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - N-Vector mini-series from Wildstorm, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
20. ^ Star Trek: Divided We Fall mini-series from Wildstorm, 2001. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
21. ^ Star Trek: New Frontier one-shot comic from Wildstorm, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
22. ^ IDW Publishing (November 9, 2006). Star Trek Comics Soar Again. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-25.
23. ^ "Star Trek Returns With All-New Comics Voyages", Spike: Asylum #4, IDW Publishing, December 2006.
24. ^ IDW News. IDW Publishing (December 18, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-12-25.