STAR TREK: GOLD KEY ARCHIVES: VOLUME 2 – graphic novel

STAR TREK WEEK

There isn’t much to say about this book. This is a collection of the Star Trek comics that were initially published in the early 1970’s by Gold Key Comics.

The art is mostly pretty bad with the occasional panel looking like one of the TV show characters (usually when the panel was drawn in the image of a press photo from the show). The stories are mostly pretty silly and none of the characters behave or sound like their television counterparts. This is all explained by the fact that the writers and artists were not familiar with the show. They were handed publicity photos and given a quick run-down on the characters and the stories, but were otherwise free to invent this as they went.

This wasn’t really such a big deal at the time. No one expected the show to have the success and long life that it did. The comic was intended to make some money on something that was currently on the air – nothing more. Of course in hindsight we look back and wonder how they ever got away with publishing comics that were Star Trek in name only.

Of course, we didn’t have to buy them, did we? And yet we did buy them. This was one of the only ways to actually keep the adventure going – such as it was.

IDW Publishing has now released the entire series of Gold Key Star Trek comics in a series of graphic novel formats. For those of us who were around when these first came out, this is really just a matter of nostalgia. Once in awhile I’d think, “Oh, finally, here’s one I hadn’t read.” But then a page or two later I’ll realize that I did in fact buy and read that comic.

This collection contains issues numbered 7-12, which have the following:

“The Voodoo Planet” – a magician has developed a way to destroy earth, even across the vast distance of the universe… by using voodoo!

“The Youth Trap” – Members of the crew are reverse aging and becoming babies. Scotty is wearing a green uniform and is a good-looking young officer who is hanging out with a sexy redhead who looks every inch a 1970’s hippie.

“The Legacy of Lazarus” – puts our intrepid Enterprise crew on a planet full of Earth’s historical figures. How is that possible?! At least Mr. Spock gets to deliver a swift kick to the gun-wielding bad guy!

“Sceptre of the Sun” – a giant djinn snatches the Enterprise and Kirk and crew find a strange planet where cultures collide – club-toting savages face off against magic-induced rock people, all supported by a strange hybrid of science and wizardry. In this issue we learn that it isn’t just in the television series where the crew might get thrown in the wrong direction when the ship shudders:

“The Brain Shockers” – What’s shocking is that we paid money for this and once thought of it as a viable Star Trek alternative. Spock’s flower-child page of emotions is some pretty groovy Star Trek art!

“The Flight of the Buccaneer” – Striped shirts, pantaloons, thick belts with brass buckles, all wrapped up in cellophane space-suits with fish-bowl helmets. … and that’s Kirk and Spock! Old-fashioned pirates in the future. Who wouldn’t have fun with this?!

Looking for a good book? It’s not really Star Trek, but Star Trek: Gold Key Archives: Volume 2 is fun nostalgia. No…it doesn’t look much like Star Trek, no matter how much we squint our eyes, but it’s still goofy fun.