Star Trek: A Comics History

This is a great addition to his James Bond book on comics. includes up to the current IDW run (still in progress)..

As mentioned by other reviewers, if you're looking for interviews with the writers, artists, editors of the Star Trek comics, as I was, this book is NOT for you. The problem begins for me, with the unispired cover. For a book on the comics medium, I expected something alot more exciting. I'm not aware of any book that has really delved into that material, the behind the scenes, such as drawing accurate hardware and actors likenesses, struggles with Paramount licensing, etc. I believe TwoMorrow's publishing once had a 2 part interview with some of the comics creatives in their BackIssue Magazine and Write Now. Wizard Magazine also had a Star Trek roundtable as well as Star Trek magazine which had various articles on the different publishers. This book, as mentioned in other reviews is mostly a synopsis of various stories from Gold Key, Marvel and DC. IDW was just beginning their major run so it wasn't really covered in depth. If you like to have a physical checklist as opposed to an online directory, this book is for you.

Really interesting book, thorough, enjoyable to read, great illustrations. Highly recommended.

Mr. Porter has put together a nice review of Star Trek comics history, starting with the Gold Key issues, and he does an excellent job of giving plot summaries of the stories. Porter also supplies lots of comic frames from numerous editions. For me the problem is that ST: a comics history, which was published in 2009, isn't really necessary. A site called, Star Trek comics checklist covers most of this information. Admittedly, the plot summaries are much shorter in the checklist. If you are really into ST comics then this is a nice purchased. I actually bought a used copy.

I've been waiting for a book like this, since Pocket Books released a history and critique of the Star Trek paperback prose. Now, that its comic book counterpart is here, I find the information provided both insightful and nostalgic. First off, Mr.Porter has done a tremendous job in picking some of the great ST comic book covers I grew up with. Looking at the painted covers done in the early Gold Key years brought back a good many memories of me waiting Monday evenings for the new comic books to be put out at a local grocery. Also added: Some of the great Bantam Star Trek covers done for the James Blish adaptations done in the late sixties, early seventies. Remember, this was before VCR's and people were hungry for anything that could bring back the TV experience throughout the week. Again, I had forgotten how gorgeous some of the covers were. Beautiful and striking. Probably the most difficult task for Mr. Porter was writing up all the various Trek synopsis' for all the comic book stories. This can get to be awfully repetitious after awhile, when one is summarizing another's story, but the author gets everything capsulated. Though some entries are more entertaining than others. It might have helped if Mr. Porter had been able to get some sort of checklist (from ST comic book critics) of some of the best of the these tales. I noticed that Peter David, who was one of the more accomplished Trek comic book and fiction writers gave little feedback for this text. That's a pity because Mr. David's further input would have made some great stories here. Extremely enjoyed seeing the UK art and stories, as being from the US, I never had the opportunity to experience this early rendition of Gene Roddenberry's universe. There's a quaintness to it, as invariably like Gold Key's earliest issues there's quite a few errors with Trek canon and history. Still it's fun reading it, and it's not boring. Over the years there have been various versions of the Enterprise's final first five year mission, alternate returns to Talos IV, and Kirk's childhood. It's interesting to refer to these stories, but the book shows, just like its prose version, that there can be a bit of Trek "overload" with too many interpretations of the same characters. Maybe it's good that some of the ST fiction and comics slowed down over the years. Excellent reference text. It brought back some memories, and if there's a second edition I look forward to it. JThree Williston, ND [email protected]

When I first heard about this book, I was very excited -- I've been very interested on all the various TREK comics over the decades, and the stories behind their creation. Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my expectations. It's really only useful for a checklist of stories. I was expecting much more "behind the scenes" information... Heck, I could speak extemporaneously about several of the interesting stories behind the comics and reveal more than this book -- Peter David's struggles with Paramount Licensing, Dave Cockrum's dislike of Klaus Janson's inks, etc. Speaking of Peter David, why wasn't he interviewed? The other "interviews" were a series of generic, tired questions. If you need a checklist and story synopses of published TREK comics, then this book might fit the bill. If you're looking for a in-depth examination (as I was), you'll probably want to steer clear.

The book is a great reference for the hardcore Trek comic fan like me! [...]

This is a truly awful book that fails to deliver what it says on the cover. If you want dull summaries of all the comic book stories Trek characters have appeared in over the years then this will be a five start experience. For the rest of us who would like to read interviews with creators and publishers save for a few scant pages here and there this material is absent. There are some interesting illustrations but the recent magazine from the now defunct Comics International had more to say on this topic by a mile. It's overpriced, uninformative and a huge missed opportunity, I just wish the author had devoted the time he must have given to reading the comics to emailing creators and finding out more about Gold Key as a publisher, the problems with the rights during the mid-Eighties etc. Save your money, buy the reprints and then you wont need these paragraphs of waffle!