Star Trek 56th Anniversary

On September 8th, 1966, fans were treated to the first episode of Star Trek.

Now, 56 years later, time to celebrate that science fiction classic, with a look at comic covers from Star Trek's long history in comics, with one being a little sadder than the rest.

Gold Key was the first to publish Star Trek, and IDW is the current license holder, and here are the covers of their 56 issues of their respective series....with art by an unidentified artist (October, 1978) and Tony Shasteen (April 2016).

.

DC had two concurrent series running with Star Trek, one on the original series and one based on The Next Generation, with covers by Rod Whigham and Carlos Garzon and by Deryl Skelton (both issues cover dated January, 1994)

.

But, the sad part of this anniversary, is this, the 56th (and last issue) of DC's original run of Star Trek comics, with cover art by Jerome Moore (November, 1988....and read more on the history of Star Trek comics here).  

But, not unlike Spock, Star Trek would return to comics, including the Next Generation and beyond!

Star Trek 55th Anniversary

Celebrating 55 years of Star Trek, as its first episode aired on September 8, 1966.

Here, with a painted cover (and a sLight error), Spock and Scotty faced off in the Gold Key Star Trek 55th issue from September, 1978, while an older Spock was the feature for the IDW Star Trek 55th issue from March, 2016.

DC had 2 Star Trek series, the first with Kirk, Spock and McCoy beaming down from the Enterprise-A in the 55th issue from October, 1988, the second, with Sulu and Kirk fighting Klingons disguised as Klingons from December, 1993.

More info on Spock here, some special Star Trek issues here, Next Generation and Deep Space Nine here, and on all the Star Trek comics from a 50th Anniversary article here!

Remembering Ricardo Montalban With Khan Covers

 

Remembering actor Ricardo Montalban on what would have been his 100th birthday (November 25, 1920 - January 14, 2009).

Known for many roles including the enigmatic Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island, as well as a pair of appearances as Armando in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes/Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes...

...he was better known as the genetically enhanced man from the 1990s, Khan Noonien Singh, from the 1967 Star Trek episode "Space Seed" and the movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982).

 

 

While Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest have had many of their exploits told in comics...

 

...Khan has only recently had his adventures told in the funny pages, thanks to IDW.

 

 

 

Major appearances of Khan in the comics include the two mini-series, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (June-July, 2009) and Star Trek: Khan Ruling In Hell (October-January, 2010/2011) , as well as the recent one shot Star Trek: Hell's Mirror from August, 2020, detailing the adventures of the mirror universe Khan. 

Fans of Star Trek will always remember Montalban's portrayal as Khan: "He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!".

Covering Star Trek's Captain Kirk

Captain James T. Kirk had a long history.....and quite a bit of it was covered in comic books!

Here's a look back at the various looks (and comic book incarnations) of James T. Kirk over the decades, celebrating the long life of William Shatner...


....one of the best covers is the cover for Star Trek Annual #2 (1991) by Jerome K. Moore, for an issue that focused on Kirk's time at Starfleet Academy (but also showed his evolution over the decades).


Let's cover a few more....

Gold Key

Gold Key had the license from the time of the original series, and it lasted for 61 issues, from October, 1967 to March, 1979, with a couple of Captain Kirk covers like #33 (September, 1975) by George Wilson, and #38 (July, 1976) also painted by George Wilson.

Marvel 1

Marvel was next to have the Star Trek series, based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and since it only lasted for 18 issues from April, 1980 to February, 1982, it didn't have as much time to cover then Admiral James T. Kirk, with covers here from #4 (July, 1980) by Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson and #14 (June, 1981) by Ed Hannigan and James Sherman.

DC 1

DC Comics got the Enterprise crew next, with their first series running for 56 issues from February, 1984 to November, 1988; it had many covers with Admiral Kirk, including #6 (July, 1984) by Tom Sutton and Sal Amendola, and #54 (September, 1988) by Jerome K. Moore and Keith Wilson.

DC 2

DC ran a second series based on the original Star Trek characters, running from October, 1989 to February, 1996, with stories of Kirk from all over his career, including #10 (July, 1980) by Mark Bright and Keith Wilson, and #73 (July, 1995) by Jason Palmer, for what ended up being Star Trek's longest running series, lasting 80 issues from October, 1989 to February, 1996, by which time the original Star Trek cast had moved on from Star Trek, leaving the movies and television shows to new generations....

Marvel 2

That didn't stop addition adventures with the original crew from happening....Marvel had multiple Star Trek series during the 1990s under the Paramount Comics imprint, and Kirk was featured in more than a few of the issues, such as Star Trek: Early Voyages #14 (March, 1998) and Star Trek Unlimited #8 (March, 1998), but sadly, neither issue credits their cover artists. 

IDW

The Star Trek characters have ended up at IDW Publishing, with Captain Kirk being the feature of many covers and stories, including Star Trek: Year Four Enterprise Experiment #3 (June, 2008) cover by the Sharp Brothers...


....and even Star Trek #59 and #60 (covers by Tony Shasteen in 2016), where William Shatner's Kirk met Chris Pine's....

....proving Captain Kirk will indeed live long and prosper (more of Captain Kirk's individual history is in Who's Who In Star Trek #1 from 1987; and a story co-written by William Shatner in 1995 called Star Trek: the Ashes Of Eden with cover by Nicholas Jainschigg) and for more Star Trek covers, for one's featuring Spock, and more here for Star Trek's 50th Anniversary).

Remembering Dave Stevens' Rocketeer

"The Rocke-who?"

A line from the Rocketeer movie of 1991, spoken by Jenny (played by Jennifer Connelly, but she was really Betty) to Cliff (the Rocketeer...played by Billy Campbell).

But, before the movie, the Rocketeer appeared in comics, created by writer/artist Dave Stevens (July 29, 1955 to March 11, 2008).

The Rocketeer begins

The Rocketeer first appeared in Starslayer #2 (April, 1982) with chapter 1 of his first 1938 adventure, where we met down on his luck pilot Cliff Secord and his buddy, Peev (and they found a portable jet-pack, which allowed Cliff to adopt the identity of the hero, the Rocketeer).

His second appearance, with chapter 2 in Starslayer #3 (June, 1982), introduced Cliff's girlfriend, Betty (modeled after famous pin-up, Bettie Page, quite an influence on artist Dave Stevens)...though neither character made the cover of these books by Pacific Comics.

Chapters 3 and 4 of the Rocketeer's premiere adventure premiered in Pacific Presents #1 and #2 (October, 1982 and April, 1983), continuing Cliff's battles against the Nazis (as well as to capture Betty's hand), and even guest-starred Doc Savage and his crew (though not named to prevent copyright troubles, but there was much fun to be had with this new hero in the pre-World War II days)...

...and this adventure ended with The Rocketeer Special Edition #1 in November, 1984 by Eclipse Comics!  This issue also contained pin-ups by artists such as Gray Morrow, Doug Wildey, Murphy Anderson, Russ Heath, Al Williamson and Bruce Jones.

These five original chapters of the Rocketeer were gathered in the Rocketeer, which came out in graphic novel form in September, 1985 by Eclipse Comics (and it even had an introduction by noted author, Harlan Ellison).

Rocketeer's New York Adventure

But, this didn't spell the end of Dave Stevens' adventures with the Rocketeer...as the hero and his cast headed to New York for the Rocketeer's New York Adventure....with Chapter 1 and 2 in Comico's Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #1 and #2 in July, 1988 and in July, 1989 (which also included cameos by Lamont Cranston a.k.a. the Shadow and his crew, also incognito)...

...finally concluding with Chapter 3 in Dark Horse's Rocketeer Adventure Magazine #3 in January, 1995...

...with Cliff's New York adventure was collected by Dark Horse in September, 1996); and during all this time, Dave Stevens renewed interest in pin-up queen, Bettie Page, and even helped her get royalties from publishers who used her image.

Rocketeer Movie Star

In between chapters 2 and 3 of Cliff's New York adventure is when Disney released the Rocketeer movie, and a couple of Rocketeer comics, which Dave Stevens did the cover for the regular movie adaptation in June, 1991 (with writer Peter David and artist Russ Heath providing the adaptation of the movie by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo) and artist Neal Adams and his Continuity Studios making a different movie adaptation in June, 1991 as well for the Rocketeer 3-D Comic!  Sadly, the movie didn't do well enough for Disney to want to do a sequel (and you can see Dave Stevens in the movie briefly during the Nazi test flight sequence!), and Dave Stevens passed away from hairy cell leukemia in 2008.

Rocketeer Still Flies

This hasn't stopped the Rocketeer from flying, thanks to IDW!

With the Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures in October, 2009, as well as the Rocketeer Jetpack Treasury Edition #1 of November, 2011, you can thrill to the pulp stylings of Dave Stevens' rocketman inspired hero at your leisure, enjoying all of the good girl art Dave gave us in the 1980s about the 1930s! 

IDW is even giving us new adventures of the Rocketeer...

....and some of the variant covers for those Rocketeer Adventures books include Dave Stevens' art!

.

.

  You can even see how Dave Stevens influenced modern artists, like Alex Ross and Jim Silke....

...and you can also see how they were influenced by artists like Murphy Anderson and Russ Heath!

A World of Topps' Jurassic Park Comics

Topps, usually known for baseball cards, expanded into the new world (at least to them) of comic books from 1993 to 1998.

One of its biggest properties besides X-Files, Mars Attacks, Dracula, Xena and Zorro was the licensed adaptations of Jurassic Park (and it's sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and a few original series based on this world of Michael Crichton's!

Jurassic Park

The first series of Jurassic Park comics with 4 issues that came out in June, 1993 to August, 1993, and was an adaptation of the movie written by Walt Simonson and drawn by Gil Kane and George Perez, and covers for the first two issues by Kane and Perez (and a variant on issue #2), and the last two covers were by Dave Cockrum.

Topps also provided "collector's editions"...


....that came polybagged, and had 3 collector's cards with them (hey, it was Topps after all, cards were how they made their living for decades)...


...and they even polybagged a tradepaperback collection of these 4 issues (with a zero issue, and more cards as well!).

Well, it was the 1990s, and bagging and selling comics as collectibles was the rage!

Jurassic Park: Raptor

First up in their original comics were two issues of Jurassic Park: Raptor as the "Official Continuation of the Hit Movie" by Steve Englehart and Armando Gil (with covers by Michael Golden) in November and December, 1993 (just the two issues)...

...and of course, bagged with 3 William Stout trading cards!

Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack

The next original series up was Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack from March to June, 1994 with stories by Steve Englehart, and art by Chaz Truog, and covers by Michael Golden for 4 issues as "the biggest Blockbuster ever continues!".



Still more adventures of Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler facing off against dinosaurs!

Really neat, and reprinted in Topps' Jurassic Park Adventures #3-6, while Jurassic Park Adventures #1 and #2 had Jurassic Park: Raptor #1 and #2.

Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack

After the dinosaurs attacked, then they'd hijack, and that was the following mini-series of 4 issues by Steve Englehart and Neil Vokes...Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack #1 to #4 from July to November, 1994.

Hmm...it does seem like they are just cloning these books as they go along (but, go with it, as cloning dinosaurs was the theme of the movie....), and these tales were reprinted in Jurassic Park Adventures #6 to #10.

Jurassic Park Annual

Jurassic Park had it's one and only annual (with Jurassic Park Annual #1) in May of 1995, with 2 all-new stories and art by Bob Almond, Neil Garrett Jr., Michael Golden, Ed Murr, Andrew Pepoy, Claude St. Aubin and Renee Witterstaetter...



...and, at this time, the writing was beginning to show up on the cave walls....


...but, never count a Velociraptor or a Tyrannosaurus Rex out at any time, as they return more than Jason did in Friday the 13th (also a property used by Topps Comics!).

Return To Jurassic Park

A slightly new title was made to the new series of Return To Jurassic Park that started in April of 1995 and ran nine issues until February of 1996.


Issues #1 to #4 of Return to Jurassic Park were done by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton, Return to Jurassic Park #5 through #8 were by Tom & Mary Bierbaum and Armando Gil with the storyline of "Heirs To Thunder"...

...then Return to Jurassic Park #9, the final issue of this run of the series, which came out in February, 1996, was a "Jurassic Jam" issue, featuring work by writers Keith Giffen, Renee Witterstaetter and Dwight Zimmerman and a dinosaur-sized set of talented artists including Aaron Lopresti, Adam Hughes, Brian Stelfreeze, Cully Hammer, George Perez, Jason Pearson, Jeff Butler, John Byrne, June Brigman, Kelly Freas, Kerry Gammill, Kevin Maguire, Mike Docherty, Mike Zeck, Mitch O'Connell, Pat Broderick, Paul Chadwick, Paul Gulacy, Rafael Kayanan, Ron Lim, and Walter Simonson and a cover by John Bolton!

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park had a sequel in 1997 called The Lost World: Jurassic Park, set four years after the original movie, and it dealt with more dinosaurs (as well as the return of Ian Malcolm) to deal with the mistakes made when John Hammond unleashed these cloned dinosaurs on the world as the Bowman family dealt with new threats off the coast of Central America (and Peter Ludlow, the nephew of John Hammond), tried to take over InGen (the parent company that started this mess) and the dinosaurs.

This time around, for the comic series of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (May to August, 1997), Walt Simonson provided the covers, Don McGregor did the comic writing, and the art was provided by Jeff Butler for The Lost World: Jurassic Park #1 and #2, and by Claude St. Aubin for The Lost World: Jurassic Park #3 and #4.

Also added this time around were photo cover variants for the issues....but, soon after this, Topps Comics was as dead as the dinosaurs.

IDW To The Rescue

Still, IDW Publishing got the rights to Jurassic Park, and it made tradepaperback collecting these series...Classic Jurassic Park #1 has Jurassic Park #1 to #4,  Classic Jurassic Park #2: Raptors Revenge has Jurassic Park #0, Jurassic Park; Raptor #1 and #2, and Jurassic Park: Raptors Attack #1 to #4, Classic Jurassic Park #3: Amazon Adventure! has Jurassic Park Annual #1, and Jurassic Park: Raptors Hijack #1 to #4, Classic Jurassic Park #4: Return to Jurassic Park Part 1 has Return to Jurassic Park #1 to #4, and Classic Jurassic Park #5: Return to Jurassic Park Part 2 has Return to Jurassic Park #5 to #9.

IDW has even made its own adaptations as well, continuing on the work started by Topps, and continuing the hard work to resurrect dinosaurs, with its own 5 issue Jurassic Park series from June to October, 2010 (by Bob Schrek and Nate Van Dyke), 5 issues of Jurassic Park: Dangerous Games from September, 2011 to January, 2012 (by Erik Bear and Jorge Jimenez), and 4 issues of Jurassic Park: The Devils In The Desert from January to April, 2011 (by John Byrne) ....when will they ever learn not to clone things from left behind DNA?