Star Trek : The Comic Strip

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In 1979, a Star Trek daily comic strip appeared, tied into "Star Trek : The Motion Picture". What's weird about this is I somehow clipped and pasted an entire story into a scrap book as a kid, eventhough I have no recollection of doing so.
It does make sense, as a kid, I was really into the Gold Key and later Marvel Trek comics. So, for the next few Saturdays I'm going to post installments of this remarkably well drawn story.
Now here is installment 1 of Star Trek: The Comic Strip

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[PCofmisfittoys]

i would think it would re-printed in some form like the sw ones did.

[cjefferys]

I used to read the Star Wars daily strip around that same time (and yes, cut them out and saved them), but never saw the Star Trek one before. It does seem to be well done, was it ever collected anywhere (other than in a scrap book ). I loved the old Gold Key Trek comic books though.

[palitoy]

I was surprised too, then i read this:

After "The Wristwatch Planation" was finished, Niven and DiVono discussed turning the story into a novel, or at least publishing the strips themselves as a separate book. However, personnel shakeups at the Times and Paramount after the strip's run resulted in an initial interest in the publication evaporating.

Voyages of the Enterprise #1It was thus left to a tabloid-style magazine marketed to pop culture collectors called Nostalgia World to pick up the republication rights. The magazine issued reprints of some of the daily (and none of the Sunday color) Star Trek strips as supplements to its issues from the early to mid-1980’s. Strips from Story Arc #1 through Story Arc #9 were reprinted in that way (with Story Arc #6 ending in the middle with the 10/13/1980 strip for some reason). "The Wristwatch Planation" was not among the ones republished.

The supplements were separate "Comics Sections" entitled "Voyages of the Enterprise" (for Trek Comic Sections No.1 through No. 3) and simply "Star Trek" (for Sections No. 6 and No. 7). Comic Sections 4 and 5 do not exist and never did. The story goes that the warehouse of the printer used by the publication had a fire that destroyed all the art for Sections 4 and 5. The accepted explanation goes on to say that the Sections were never reconstructed or reprinted as the contract between the LA Times Syndicate and Paramount had lapsed such that the Syndicate could not legally supply additional copies of the art. However, other than the abrupt ending in the middle of Story Arc #6 all the strips from 12/3/1979 through 7/21/1981 were published in supplements. So if any strips were destroyed and not replaced they had to have been the later strips beginning with Story Arc #10. This is difficult to accept, as it would require an intention to have published them out of order and before Story Arcs # 7, 8, and 9. Regardless, there is a gap in the issue numbers that confuses and frustrates collectors to this day.

The confusion and post-publication situation hasn't really improved, and it appears that none of the strips are likely to be published again anytime soon. In the late '90s, Star Trek Communicator columnist Rich Handley finished assembling a complete set of both the US and UK Star Trek comic strips (five years' worth of additional material had run from 1969-1973 in the United Kingdom). He offered the strips to both Pocket Books and WildStorm Publishing, both of which were very keen on reprinting both runs in their entirety. Sadly, this did not come to pass. John J. Ordover, then editor of Pocket Books in charge of the Star Trek publications, said in a 2001 posting on the site Psi Phi (reproduced here), that one reason the strips will likely never be published in an official bound (non-newspaper) version is that the "legal stuff is in a huge mess". Multiple syndicators in the US and Europe, different artist and writer contracts, and the inability of Paramount to even find the contracts made assessments of rights in the works and the resultant costs to publish them impossible. Initial plans for a printed collection were dropped after the hurdles to clear legalities became too overwhelming. The strips are available today electronically as scans in a set from this site, but aside from that they are available only by finding old newspapers in library collections or purchasing individual strips or issues of Nostalgia World – when they can be located, that is. They thus remain for all practical purposes as obscurely known and difficult to find today as they were when they were first produced.

[PCofmisfittoys]

yeah, recentlt picked up a gold key comicbook rack at a thrift store of places, it has the cartoon titles on it but i have thought about filling it with st comics.

[toys2cool]

That's pretty cool man,I find stuff i did as a kid all the time that I also don't remember doing,like finding a porn recorded right after Lion King My niece was like what is this? needless to say my wife wanted to kill me.But I swear I could'nt remember doing that

[HardyGirl]

I have quite a few Gold Key comic books, but I don't ever remember there being a comic in the newspapers. Pretty cool, though.