Gold Key Star Trek Comics Love Thread

[palitoy]

Innaccurate to the show, kind of dumb but completely charming and addictive. I was doing a major house cleaning last week and I noticed that every drawer in my house had an issue or two collected from my travels.


Star Trek # 35 Gold Key VF-VF+ Comic Book Whitman Logo Rare | eBay

It's not just the covers for me, although they do rule.



STAR TREK 36 9.2 NM- 1976 SPOCK KIRK SHARP HIGH GRADE | eBay



Gold Key Star Trek #30 Death of a Star Near Mint Cond | eBay

[palitoy]

I liked these as both a kid and an adult, someday I'll finish my sets.



Star Trek the Enterprise logs silver age graphic novel | eBay

[torgospizza]

I especially like the Al McWilliams issues. They're great fun, but it seemed like the artists weren't given much in the way of reference. The characters either looked like tracings or not at all like themselves, almost as if they'd been drawn solely from a written description. I think I liked them so much as a kid because they were so different from what DC and Marvel were doing, they seemed really fresh. It was also a bonus that Whitman would take them and repackage them in bags with three issues for a low price. It was always a crap shoot on the issue in the middle, though, because you'd never know what you were getting until you opened the bag.

[palitoy]

I especially like the Al McWilliams issues.

Are those the later issues? I remember thinking the whole thing got more show accurate when he took over.

The characters either looked like tracings or not at all like themselves, almost as if they'd been drawn solely from a written description.

The original artist Alberto Giolotti, lived in Italy and had never seen the show, he was working from stills. If you look at some 60s promotional stills for the show while reading the comics, you can see where they are constantly being recycled, especially in the case of Spock.

[toys2cool]

i've always liked these, I use to pick them up in an art store down here in the 80's

[HardyGirl]

I think I may have that one w/ the eye on the cover, as well as a few other issues, and one volume a the Key Collection, a compilation of the Star Trek Key Comics. Yeah, sometimes the dialogue is downright laughable, and the colors are way off, but they still have a vintage charm all their own. And when you were a kid back then, who cared about accuracy?

[torgospizza]

Are those the later issues? I remember thinking the whole thing got more show accurate when he took over.

I could be wrong, but I think Issue #38 was his first issue. He definitely dominated the last half of the run.

The original artist Alberto Giolotti, lived in Italy and had never seen the show, he was working from stills. If you look at some 60s promotional stills for the show while reading the comics, you can see where they are constantly being recycled, especially in the case of Spock.

I had noticed there was one particular publicity still of Spock holding a beaker that was re-used for reference quite a bit in the book (I think it was also used for James Blish's Spock Must Die! cover), but I had no idea Giolotti had never seen the show. That's just nuts, but it wasn't like today where you could just mail an artist a DVD or he could just Google reference pics. I'd never heard that before, but it makes a lot of sense. Good info!

Yeah, sometimes the dialogue is downright laughable, and the colors are way off, but they still have a vintage charm all their own. And when you were a kid back then, who cared about accuracy?

At times, they would even make Uhura a white woman. Even as a kid, I was like, "At least try to pay attention, guys! What show are you watching?"

[HardyGirl]

At times, they would even make Uhura a white woman. Even as a kid, I was like, "At least try to pay attention, guys! What show are you watching?"

I know, Power Records would do that too, and make Sulu a black man! (Zulu, Sulu, I guess it was all the same to them), , but still...you had to appreciate the charm, despite the inaccuracies.

[torgospizza]

but still...you had to appreciate the charm, despite the inaccuracies.

No doubt. That real illustrative style McWilliams used just wasn't being seen in mainstream comics, and guys like him or Reed Crandall just blew my mind. And any inherent goofiness concerning plot or characters was kind of lost on me due to my youth. I guess I was just happy to get a Trek comic, really!

[Mikey]

A bit off topic, but kind of on topic for what you guys are talking about above ... I know admitting this will most likely make me look stupid but as a kid I never knew Uhura was black ... I never realized it until someone in school mentioned it and even then I didn't believe it

[Earth 2 Chris]

I had that Doomsday Bomb time-travel issue as a Dyna-Brite comic on heavier stock with REALLY bright ink and a cardstock cover. I got it at the time DC was doing their first series. The differences were jarring!

Chris

[mego73]

I love the Star Trek Gold Key comics to death. You guys are right. Alberto Giolitti had only a publicity reference photos to work with and it seemed he loved what I call the "beaker Spock"



As it seems to be a reference for a Spock drawing in almost every one of his issues.

As well as this photo being a reference for many Enterprise drawings



What was really a mounting pipe on the secondary hull would become some sort of beam emiter in the comics.

Also on the back cover of the first issue is a publicity picture of Kirk holding a futuristic microphone (can't find an example of it on the web). Because of that photo, many in the comic are seen holding a wired mic when communicating with the landing party.

The rocket trails coming from the Enterprise in the early comics were probably inspired by the NBC promo art later used on the James Blish book



As Star Trek got more popular in the 70's Alberto got better at the interiors and the ship. Later drawings of the Enterprise show that he was using an AMT model kit for reference

[cjefferys]

Man, I loved reading the Gold Key Star Trek comics when I was a kid. Have they ever been collected in reprint trade paperbacks or something? (other than the old "Enterprise Logs". I used to have a couple of those but stupidly sold them).

[mego73]

Man, I loved reading the Gold Key Star Trek comics when I was a kid. Have they ever been collected in reprint trade paperbacks or something? (other than the old "Enterprise Logs". I used to have a couple of those but stupidly sold them).

Oh yeah, up to volume 5 I think

Amazon.com: Star Trek: The Key Collection Volume 1 (Star Trek: The Key Collection) (9780974166445): Len Wein, George Kashden, Nevio Zaccara, Alberto Giolitti: Books

[cjefferys]

Cool thanks, I just might have to pick up some of those.