IDW's Star Trek comics for January, and Eaglemoss' latest Graphic Novel Collection books

IDW have released their solicitations for January, which include two new Star Trek comics, both continuing current runs. Continue below for all the details of those, plus what sadly looks to be the last batch of title announcements from Eaglemoss' Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.

Year Five(ad) #19 will be part two of the medical story On the Death of a Friend. The creative team continues from the previous issue, with the book written by Jim McCann, and art by Angel Hernandez. Here's the blurb:

A pandemic raging across Alpha Centauri. A powerful enemy aboard the Enterprise. With death lurking around every corner, the crew will face down one of their greatest challenges yet in the shocking conclusion to this episode from Eisner-winning writer Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men) and superstar artist Angel Hernandez (Star Trek: Picard)!

This issue will be available in the usual two covers. Either the main cover by Stephen Thompson, with a rather scary appearance by Isis. Or there's the retail incentive by J.J. Lendl, their latest travel poster, with a bit of a twist this time. 

IDW's Star Trek comics for December, latest Graphic Novel Collection titles, and more.

IDW and Eaglemoss have announced the latest new Star Trek comic titles, including two new books on the way from IDW in December, and four more issues of the Graphic Novel Collection reprints series. Continue below for all the details of those, and other Star Trek comics news.

December will see the continuation of IDW's TOS maxiseries Year Five, with the start of a new story arc, On the Death of a Friend, in issue 18. This will be written by Jim McCann, with art by Angel Hernandez. Here's the blurb:

The Enterprise receives a distress call from Alpha Centauri and arrives to find a planet in the midst of a deadly global pandemic. But is nature responsible for this new virus, or is there something more sinister at play? The final voyages of the U.S.S. Enterprise continue in this new episode from Eisner-winning writer Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men) and superstar artist Angel Hernandez (Star Trek: Picard)!

The regular cover team returns with the usual options of two covers for this series, both featuring Doctor McCoy. There's either the main cover by Stephen Thompson with some cool sciencey visuals, or the rarer retail incentive retro-movie-poster-style piece by J.J. Lendl, with a bit more of a mad scientist look - The latter also features a black cat, surely indicating another appearance in the series from Gary Seven and Isis?

IDW's November Star Trek comics, latest Graphic Novel Collection titles, and more comic updates

IDW have announced their solicitations for November, which include the start of a new Voyager miniseries, and a Gary Seven origin story! Continue below for all the details of those, plus the latest books in Eaglemoss' Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection (including the first ever reprint of a super rare Brazilian comic), and other Star Trek comic updates.

The big news from IDW's latest announcements is that November will see the start of their first ever Voyager comic miniseries (and only second ever stand-alone Voyager comic, following the one-shot mirror universe tale Mirrors and Smoke). The four-part series will be focused on Seven of Nine, and is called Seven’s Reckoning, and will be written by Dave Baker, with art by Angel Hernandez, and colours by Ronda Pattison. Here's the blurb for issue one:

After Voyager encounters a damaged alien ship deep in the Delta quadrant, what at first seems to be a simple repair mission becomes much more complicated for Seven of Nine as she becomes involved in an ancient conflict that will put her newfound humanity to the test. From writer Dave Baker (Action Hospital, F*ck Off Squad, Star Trek: Waypoint) and artist Angel Hernandez (Star Trek: Picard Countdown, Star Trek/Green Lantern).

The first issue will be offered in at least three covers. Either the A cover by Angel Hernandez, a B photo-cover, or a retail incentive cover by Jefferey Veregge. So far just the Hernandez design has been revealed:

Latest Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection titles and other Star Trek comics updates

Eaglemoss have announced the contents of four new books in the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection. Continue below for all the details, plus a few other Star Trek comics updates.

Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection #125: The Ashes of Eden

Named for the comic book adaptation of William Shatner's first "Shatnerverse" novel. The book will also contain a couple of other DC Comics TOS Specials. Contents and credits are:

• The Ashes of Eden
• An adventure set between The Undiscovered Country and Generations, featuring Kirk, the decommissioned USS Enterprise-A, and some Klingon/Romulan mixed heritage people among other things!
• Written by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, with art by Steve Erwin (pencils) and Jimmy Palmiotti (inks). 
• DC Star Trek Special #2
• Raise the Defiant
• A TOS movie-era sequel to The Tholian Web.
• Written by Kevin J. Ryan, with art by Chris Wozniak (penicls) and Jeff Hollander (inks)
• A Question of Loyalty
• A TOS movie-era meeting of Saavik and Valeris.
• Written by Steven H. Wilson, with art by Rachel Ketchum (pencils) and Rich Faber (inks).
• DC Star Trek Special #3
• The Unforgiven
• A TOS TV-era sequel to Operation: Annihilate! featuring Kirk and his nephews on a camping trip, and Orions in tanks!
• Written by Michael Jan Friedman, with art by Steve Erwin (pencils) and Jimmy Palmiotti (inks).
• Echoes of Yesterday
• A TOS movie-era story that's also a sequel to Operation: Annihilate! featuring an older Peter Kirk on a time travel mission to try and save his parents in that episode.
• Written by Mark A. Altman, with art by Ken Save (pencils) and Ron Boyd (inks).

Interview: Rich Handley on the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection

Rich Handley might be a name familiar to you if you're a fan of Star Trek comics. His famously complete collection made him a key figure in bringing back into print the almost-lost Star Trek comic strips from the US and UK. More recently he's been working with Eaglemoss on their Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection; initially writing introductions for many of the books, and now as editor of the series. We had a chat recently to discuss his work on the collection, and the hope it might be able to continue long enough to get to reprint every Star Trek comic. Continue below to find out more.

So to kick off, I know you've been involved in Star Trek comics as a collector and professionally for a long time. Can you fill us in on how you ended up in charge of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection? And what it's been like getting to play with all the Star Trek comic toys as a result?

I'll paraphrase Commander Kor by saying it's been glorious.

My involvement with the Eaglemoss books goes back to shortly after the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection was first announced—but my love of Star Trek comics goes back to 1984, when I was 16 years old. I'd been a Trek fan since pretty much my toddler days, as I was born in 1968 and my mother was a first-generation fan who'd watched the show all the time while I was growing up. Although I can't say one-year-old me was a fan (one-year-old me was too busy drooling on myself, sucking my thumb and figuring out how to say words more complicated than "mama" and "dada"), I was present in the room, sitting in my playpen, while my mom watched the final season in its first run. So I can truthfully say the franchise has been in my life since the beginning.

By age 16, I'd watched each episode countless times and I'd read each novel as it came out. But teenage me craved more. One day, as I was walking through a bookstore in my home town of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a comic book cover caught my eye: issue #9 of DC's first Star Trek run. It announced "New Frontiers" on the cover, which piqued my curiosity, and the artwork was striking. I'd never been a comics reader before that point, other than perusing my cousins' funny books when I was a child of the '70s—Little Lulu, Archie, Fox and Hound, that sort of thing—so despite my love of the Trek franchise, the comics had largely been off my radar until I'd spotted that cover. I decided "Why the hell not?" and took it home, figuring that if I didn't enjoy it, I'd only be out 75 cents (comics were a lot cheaper back then). As it turned out, that wasn't a problem.

I soon began looking up local comic shops to find the first eight issues. That was easy, as they were all current. Then I went nuts tracking down the Marvel and Gold Key stories that had preceded DC's line, but this proved more challenging—still, I found them all. I've been collecting Trek comics ever since and have amassed every issue to date, including rare items fans might not know about. This culminated in my befriending Mark Martinez (proprietor of the Star Trek Comics Checklist), creating my own resource (The Complete Star Trek Comics Index), and eventually writing for Star Trek Communicator magazine back in the day, and later contributing to several unofficial Star Trek books offered by Sequart and ATB Publishing.

A few years back, I worked on five Star Trek hardcover books for IDW's Library of American Comics (LOAC) imprint, which reprinted all of the U.S. and U.K. Star Trek comic strips. The strips were scanned from my personal collection (you can imagine how tough it was to complete the full set of those stories in the pre-Internet days), and I wrote the supplementary materials for each volume. That was an amazing experience; working on an official Trek comic has always been number-one on my writing bucket list. Back when WildStorm had the license, editor Jeff Mariotte had invited me to write a tale for the Star Trek Special, but alas, since the company was about to lose the license, the budget was cut and I ended up being cut, too, since I'd been the last writer brought onboard. So joining the Trek comics fold with the LOAC books was extremely gratifying—and it opened up a door for me when Eaglemoss later obtained its license.