More Gold Key Star Trek info

[mego73]

Been looking at more stuff about the GK Star Trek. This site's been around for a while:

Welcome to the Guide to Gold Key STAR TREK Comics

But I have also noticed this one too:

About Gold Key Star Trek comics and Whitman Star Trek comics

This has more info on the early photo covers. It helps you decode some of the funny stuff in the comics (since these were the photos the artist worked from)

Besides the "Beaker Spock" photo used as reference a lot for the comics:



Issue one had this publicity photo of Kirk:



Because of that microphone thingy he was holding (never a prop in the actual series) we often see Kirk and other characters holding that futuristic microphone while addressing the crew or talking to a landing party

Then you have the (seen a lot back then) photo of the 2 foot Enterprise model in front of a sky background (sometimes the wires are retouched out, sometimes they aren't the comic used the retouched version in black and white).



This is the photo that was responsible, I am sure, for us seeing the Enterprise flying around the planet in the atmosphere much like an airplane in many of the early comics. Many early views of the Enterprise in the comics match this picture.

The pipe like protrusion under the front of the secondary hull seen in the photo was used for mounting the model on an arm for filming. It was frequently used in the comics as some sort of beam emitter (when I was a kid I though the tractor beam came from there and retracted back into the ship. I though the whole Enterprise in the sky photo was an unused scene from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday")

This photo of Spock working under the console:



was used a few times for reference as well in the comics when he was working on something in the story.

Finally, look at this nutty pose of Spock with Nomad that I've never seen before (not used for reference in the comics as far as I know)

[Nostalgiabuff]

I have a few of the original comics and also 4 volumes of reprints that I got at some point in the early eighties. I always enjoyed them even if they were a little goofy at times

[cjefferys]

I used to love reading those old Gold Key Trek comics. Have there been some recent trade paperback reprints of these?

[wyldpny]

I own all of the original Gold Key and Whitman comics (though I am missing a few variants) as well as complete sets of the Enterprise logs and the re-issued Checker versions. I still get a kick out of reading and looking at them with all of the quirky mistakes and inaccurate parts compared to the actual series.
Thanks Mike for revisiting the amazing world of vintage Trek comics and pointing out some of the reasons why these early comics were as quirky as they were.

[HardyGirl]

I got the Checker book for Christmas...and yeah, the mistakes are pretty funny.

[mego73]

I own all of the original Gold Key and Whitman comics (though I am missing a few variants) as well as complete sets of the Enterprise logs and the re-issued Checker versions. I still get a kick out of reading and looking at them with all of the quirky mistakes and inaccurate parts compared to the actual series.
Thanks Mike for revisiting the amazing world of vintage Trek comics and pointing out some of the reasons why these early comics were as quirky as they were.

I also loved how the interior of the Enterprise looked more like an interior of a Submarine or something like that.

The transporter room (called the teleportation room in the early comics) was this glass enclosed chamber with an oval opening for people to step into and at either side there are 2 huge "emitters" I wonder if they completely created it or if it's out of an old sci-fi movie.

There were also more than a couple times they used the space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey as reference for an alien space station (notably in issue 5 The Ghost Planet")

The space station eventually turns up again rendered from this photo:



in issue 36, A Bomb In Time.

As the years went on, the artists got better and being more accurate to the show and it looked as if he actually used an AMT model for reference when drawing lots of the Enterprise from different angles in issue 33 The Choice.

[palitoy]

I love this series of comics, always have. It used to amuse me when they'd show an unseen side to the enterprise bridge and it would have these HUGE levers and wheels like the ship was also a foundry.

Most of the TV comics I own seem to pull key illustrations from publicity photos, the rest of the time the likenesses are kind of pale. It's fun to spot them.