Navigating the Comics

[seigezunt]

Hey all, I wasn't seeing a specific thread, but maybe you could direct me.
I've read some of the various IDW comics over the years, but I stopped getting them when my local comic book shop closed a few years back.

My kid has taken an interest in them, and I thought it might be fun to get an actual subscription for him, but I'm not sure which series are actually currently running.

I'm also interested in catching up on some of the collections like Year Four, but the IDW site is a nightmare to navigate. Has anyone put together a guide as to what's available, what is a collection of what, that sort of thing?

 

[Jinn]

Memory Alpha has a pretty good list of what has been collected where, but obviously not whether it's still in print or not. It isn't entirely up to date though, the new Mirror War series is missing.

 

[Markonian]

HeroCollector / Eaglemoss has a collection of comic books that reprints older and newer items. But it's physical books only.
There's talk about there being some giant PDF or CD-ROM collecting Trek comics from the 20th century.

 

[ryan123450]

The site you’re looking for is Mark Martinez’s Star Trek Comics Checklist.

www.startrekcomics.info

 

[Kor]

...
There's talk about there being some giant PDF or CD-ROM collecting Trek comics from the 20th century.

That would be the DVD-ROM "Star Trek: The Complete Comic Book Collection," released by Graphic Imaging Technology Inc. in 2008. Each comic book or trade paperback is an individual PDF file. The box says the comics are "printable" which is technically true, but I would say the image quality is "medium," so wouldn't look great if you actually printed any of them. They are fine for reading on a computer or tablet. And these are actually all scans of the physical comics, two pages at a time, so you see the vertical seam in the middle of each scan. Also a 2008 CBS copyright notice is added to the bottom of every page.

This collection has all Trek comic books published through October 2002, including Gold Key/Whitman, DC, Marvel/Paramount, Malibu, and Wildstorm. As a "bonus" it even includes the comics done by Peter Pan/Power Records as part of their Trek book and record sets for kids between 1975 and 1979. It has none of the IDW stuff, which started in 2007. And none of the UK comic strip published from 1969 - 1973 or the US comic strip published from 1979 to 1983.

I'm not sure if this thing is actually in print anymore, but it's still listed on Amazon at $29.99, which I think is pretty reasonable for over 500 comic books, even if they aren't high-resolution.

Kor

 

[DarrenTR1970]

I was able to find my copy of 'Star Trek: The Complete Comics Collection' at Half Price Books. Depending upon which location you go to, they usually have a good selection of Star Trek collected works in the Graphic Novels section.

 

[Kor]

I was able to find my copy of 'Star Trek: The Complete Comics Collection' at Half Price Books. Depending upon which location you go to, they usually have a good selection of Star Trek collected works in the Graphic Novels section.

That's where I got mine, several years ago for $9.99. I don't think I've seen them at the locations in my area recently, though.

Kor

 

[Therin of Andor]

This collection has all Trek comic books published through October 2002, including Gold Key/Whitman, DC, Marvel/Paramount, Malibu, and Wildstorm.

From memory it ignores the two "X-Men" crossovers (TOS and TNG), due to Marvel copyrights, and accidentally omitted the all-Klingon-language edition of a "Starfleet Academy" comic.

 

[Daddy Todd]

From memory it ignores the two "X-Men" crossovers (TOS and TNG), due to Marvel copyrights, and accidentally omitted the all-Klingon-language edition of a "Starfleet Academy" comic.

I think it missed the Modala Imperative trade paperback, but since it had all the individual issues, it was not a major omission.

 

[dupersuper]

accidentally omitted the all-Klingon-language edition of a "Starfleet Academy" comic.

I have that issue! Some day I'll get around to finding out what it says...

 

[Kor]

From memory it ignores the two "X-Men" crossovers (TOS and TNG), due to Marvel copyrights, and accidentally omitted the all-Klingon-language edition of a "Starfleet Academy" comic.

I forgot all about the X-Men crossovers.

I think it missed the Modala Imperative trade paperback, but since it had all the individual issues, it was not a major omission.

Hopefully the trade paperback didn't include extra artwork or stuff like that. It would be a bit sad to miss out on that.

Kor

 

[BillJ]

I have that issue! Some day I'll get around to finding out what it says...

I imagine it says the same thing the English language version does.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Hopefully the (Modala Imperative) trade paperback didn't include extra artwork or stuff like that. It would be a bit sad to miss out on that.

Kor

it has an introduction by Walter Koenig, and some of the cover art without trade dress, but no sketches or pin-ups.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I think it missed the Modala Imperative trade paperback, but since it had all the individual issues, it was not a major omission.

Unless omnibuses had bonus material, it would be pointless to duplicate those files.

 

[Christopher]

Unless omnibuses had bonus material, it would be pointless to duplicate those files.

The DVD-ROM does have the covers and bonus materials from the Gold Key Enterprise Logs omnibuses, without duplicating the original issues.

 

[Steve Roby]

The DVD-ROM does have the covers and bonus materials from the Gold Key Enterprise Logs omnibuses, without duplicating the original issues.

I remember really enjoying the bonus material in the Enterprise Logs back in the day. I can still remember the day I found the first one at the local K-Mart, and that long, sad wait for volume 5, which never appeared. And then getting to go through the whole incomplete reprint series thing again back in the '00s when Checker started a new run of Gold Key reprints and didn't publish its final volumes either.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I remember really enjoying the bonus material in the Enterprise Logs back in the day. I can still remember the day I found the first one at the local K-Mart, and that long, sad wait for volume 5, which never appeared. And then getting to go through the whole incomplete reprint series thing again back in the '00s when Checker started a new run of Gold Key reprints and didn't publish its final volumes either.

And then, IDW did it again with the recolored "Gold Key Archives" hardcover series, which sputtered to an end in 2016, after 5 volumes.

 

[Stevil2001]

And then, IDW did it again with the recolored "Gold Key Archives" hardcover series, which sputtered to an end in 2016, after 5 volumes.

IDW abandon a reprint series? I'm shocked!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I forgot all about the X-Men crossovers.

Years ago I suggested to Diamond Select Toys when they had the Star Trek license and were making Star Trek Minimates that they issue two blister card 5-packs based on the two crossovers. They had the designs, all they had to do was package them. That didn't go anywhere.

IDW abandon a reprint series? I'm shocked!

Why couldn't they have finished Transformers UK Classics? Why?!?

 

[Stevil2001]

Why couldn't they have finished Transformers UK Classics? Why?!?

Oh, yeah, that one stings. Boggles the mind that such an influential series had only some crappy Titan reprints to finish it out.