IDW's Upcoming "Star Trek Library" Comics

[KlingonCereal]

A few weeks ago, IDW announced Star Trek Library Collection. At first, I thought this would be similar to Eaglemoss' Star Trek comic book collection. A standardized re-release of Star Trek comics. Recently, the cover for the release was released which make me think that it's not a Star Trek focused series. The official description for the series reads:

The Star Trek Library is a comprehensive line of books that will collect every comic series published by IDW. Delve into the history of over 400 issues of IDW's Star Trek comics! Discover series you may have missed or revisit some old favorites from The Original Series, The Next Generation, Kelvin Timeline, and more!

At the top of the cover art there is a highlighter indicating the starting letter for this entry. Considering the vast majority of Star Trek comics start with and "S" (shocker, I know) I can't see this being relevant unless this Library series has broader interests beyond Star Trek. Additionally, there is a generic "genre" or "category" banner on the bottom. Featuring, but not limited to, Religion, Language, Geography, and Applied Science. And like, yea, you could technically argue that various Star Trek stories cover these topics... but I doubt IDW's marketing team is that deep into Star Trek lore

I was hoping this would be a dedicated series for Star Trek, but it's looking like that won't be the case!

 

[Avro Arrow]

I was hoping this would be a dedicated series for Star Trek, but it's looking like that won't be the case!

I'm not entirely sure why you would think this, since as you mentioned in your own post, it's literally called the Star Trek Library Collection, so it wouldn't really make a lot of sense to have other titles included.

I'm fairly certain the cover design elements you mention are just playing into the "library" theme, and so are showing how Star Trek graphic novels would display in a library's catalogue. I believe that's also why they included a Dewey Decimal Number in the header as well. (741.5 is "cartoons, caricatures, comics".)

Not to say that they couldn't make other Library Collections for their other titles, but I think it's fairly safe to assume this particular one will be dedicated to Star Trek.

 

[Stevil2001]

Wow, Countdown! Definitely one that's hard to come by.

 

[KlingonCereal]

I'm not entirely sure why you would think this, since as you mentioned in your own post, it's literally called the Star Trek Library Collection, so it wouldn't really make a lot of sense to have other titles included.

I'm fairly certain the cover design elements you mention are just playing into the "library" theme, and so are showing how Star Trek graphic novels would display in a library's catalogue. I believe that's also why they included a Dewey Decimal Number in the header as well. (741.5 is "cartoons, caricatures, comics".)

Not to say that they couldn't make other Library Collections for their other titles, but I think it's fairly safe to assume this particular one will be dedicated to Star Trek.

This seems plausible! I honestly had no clue what the 741.5 represented. I’ve only briefly learned of the dewey decimal system in kindergarten but never used it before!

 

[Jinn]

Star Trek Library Collection

"Cover artist: David Messina ?"

Wow, Countdown! Definitely one that's hard to come by.

The IDW equivalent of the back-up story in Logan's Run 6.

 

[Daddy Todd]

Given IDW’s history with collections like this, I give it 6 volumes before they abandon it.

 

[Stevil2001]

Given IDW’s history with collections like this, I give it 6 volumes before they abandon it.

Lol, I was going to say four.

 

[NCC-73515]

I hope they release all of them on DVD at some point, like the Complete Collection

 

[Avro Arrow]

"Cover artist: David Messina ?"

"I mean, who can say, really? You can't expect us to keep track of picayune details such as this, can you?"

Cover artist credit on Volume 2: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Stevil2001]

Anyway, if this series bundles together some stuff I don't have at a nice price point, I would pick it up (the Boldy Go series cries out for a one-volume collection, in my opinion), but I have my doubts. Sure I'm part of the cancellation problem if I don't pick up volume one... but I already own both constituent stories!

EDIT: To go back to OP's point, it does seem like the kind of branding they could use across multiple lines. Dark Horse uses the same trade dress (or at least they did) on their Omnibus line, be it Star Wars or Aliens. I think this was true of IDW's own Omnibus line as well.

 

[Avro Arrow]

If they ever publish a volume that includes a reprint of that comic that was bundled with that Picard-themed blu-ray set, I'd probably get that one.

I would have thought last year's "Best of Captain Picard" release would have been an ideal place to reprint this, but apparently IDW didn't feel the same way.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Wow, Countdown! Definitely one that's hard to come by.

It's The Iron Legion of Star Trek comics!

 

[David cgc]

(the Boldy Go series cries out for a one-volume collection, in my opinion)

Oh, right, I gave up on those getting one big collection to match my "New Adventures" TBP collection collections, but they got a little bumped in the mail and went to the bottom of the new-book pile to flatten them back out. I should probably read those.