IDW omnibuses

IDW's December solicitations revealed/confirmed two new omnibus books on the way: The 100 Page Spectacular format must be doing quite well, as a third volume for 2012 is on the way. They describe the Winter 2012 edition as follows:

Explore the amazing worlds of Star Trek through our continuing series of 100-page spectaculars! How do you deal with killing a legend? Find out in the story of Captain Harriman, the notorious commander of the Enterprise when Captain James T. Kirk was lost and presumed dead. Guest starring Dr. McCoy! Discover the devious inner workings of the Romulan military! Re-enter the Mirror Universe as Kirk's Doppelgänger plots to overthrow his superior... Captain Pike -- And more!

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Forbidden Planet.

The solicitation credits Marc Guggenheim, Scott Tipton, and more as writers, with art from David Messina, J.K. Woodward, and more. From that it's clear Captain's Log: Harriman, and probably the first issue of Mirror Images will feature. The Romulan story could be one of many; the first Alien Spotlight: Romulans has already been reprinted in the first 100 Page Spectacular, but that still leaves an opening for the second Romulan story in the Alien Spotlight series, which seems like the most likely candidate from the vague description. Other options include the rest of John Byrne's Romulan saga, or the TNG series Intelligence Gathering. The 100 page format should also accommodate a fourth single issue story as well.

At the decidedly more generous end of the omnibus scale, December will also see the latest edition of IDW's bulky omnibus series, with the Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus. The solicitation confirms the contents as IDW's early TNG miniseries:

Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus collects 4 graphic novels into one monstrous book! The Space Between, Intelligence Gathering, The Last Generation, and Ghosts.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp, Things From Another World.

Meanwhile over in the Czech Republic the Star Trek: The Original Series Omnibus just came out, translated into Czech by Anthony Martin for Nakladatelství BB/art:

IDW reprints in Brazil

If like me you're fascinated and intrigued by the international reprints of all things Star Trek then you're in luck, as thanks to TrekWeb's Gustavo Leao (who posted an image of the most recent reprint in question on the IDW forums) I've been finding out about the Brazilian reprints (in Portuguese of course) of IDW titles coming from the publisher Devir. They're a little behind and a little slow, having started in 2008 and so far only just got to the first Alien Spotlight series. Here's what they've done so far:

Klingons: Blood Will Tell, aka Klingons: Herança de Sangue
-Published in November 2008
-Translated by Antônio C. Neto, with Portuguese lettering by Reinaldo Fraga
-If google's translations are cirrect this book included some sort of technical manual for the D7 class in addition to the comic series!

Year Four, aka Ano Quatro
-Published in May 2009
-Translated by Anthony C. Grandson

The Space Between, aka Interlúdios
-Published in July 2009
-Translated by Anthony C. Grandson, with Portuguese lettering by Reinaldo Fraga

Alien Spotlight, aka Raças Alienígenas (Alien Races)
-Published in August 2010

A year of IDW Star Trek

One year ago this day IDW kicked off it's range of Star Trek comics with History Lesson, the first issue of The Space Between miniseries. So how have they faired in their first year?

Well a couple of months into The Space Between IDW launched their second miniseries, and have kept up two simultaneous series since. Which gives their first year a grand total of four miniseries (two of which aren’t quite finished yet).

For all the criticism it got for odd plot holes and the abysmally inconclusive final issue of the series, The Space Between was actually a pretty strong start for IDW. Each stand alone issue was an interesting tale, the second and forth issues remain two of the best they've produced so far. The artwork throughout the series was consistently interesting, and very attractive. Unfortunately the final issue, which promised to tie all the issues together, really dragged the series down as it utterly failed in giving any kind of satisfying conclusion. But if you ignore the ending, the individual stories told in The Space Between were enjoyable and well worth reading.

IDW's second series, Klingons: Blood Will Tell was a significantly stronger entry than The Space Between. The series was joined up by a continuing story arc from the start, and suffered none of the editorial errors or odd jumping to conclusions of the TSB series. Each of the first four issues creatively retold a TOS Klingon episode from the Klingons’ point a view. A delightful concept enjoyably executed. The strongest issues in this series were the second and third, which focused on a single character from the episodes and really told his story. The first and forth suffered somewhat in being tied to events of the episodes but were still thoroughly enjoyable. The final issued brought the series to a magnificent and glorious conclusion. Klingons: Blood Will Tell set the standard for IDW's Trek comics, so far some have come close, but nothing has surpassed this wonderful series.

Next up was Year Four, endeavouring to present lost episodes from the forth season of The Original Series that never was. The concept of the series is sound, and the ideas behind each issue are very good, really taking the TOS theme for exploring present day issues, touching on genetic engineering, oil and the Iraq war and reality TV and doing some very TOS-like sound-based aliens. Unfortunately the strong ideas for this series is about as good as it gets. Some issues are better than others, the forth issue, on reality TV is enjoyable, well illustrated and the story is well held together. But other issues suffer terribly from rushed an thin story telling, which isn't helped by a strict panel layout through the series which restricts pages to four wide panels (trying to emulate a widescreen TV apparently) - the result is pages were very little happens as a full quarter page panel is used for the most pointless things, and other pages were far to much of the same happens, as each panel is near identical to the previous in a long scene, this coupled with the rather flat and unexciting artwork in many of the issues crippled a series which could have been so much better. Year Four isn't all bad, there is much to enjoy, but it is easily the weakest entry into IDW's Star Trek range so far.

Finally for 2007 we got Alien Spotlight, six issues by six different creative teams (two of which are still to come). Having each issue completely standalone in story and creators seems to have helped make each issue stronger itself. The first issue on the Gorn, while not hugely original, is attractive and engaging. The second issue on the Vulcans suffers a little from some odd artwork but has a strong story. The Andorians issue has a very strong and interesting story and equally good artwork, however said artwork does suffer a little from the very texty story, with speech bubbles and talking heads filling a lot of the pages, fortunately that speech is so good it doesn’t matter. The most recent issue on the Orions is a treat for fans of Captain Pike, Orions, and Tellerites alike and fills a nice gap in Star Trek history. So from we’ve had so far, Alien Spotlight is very strong indeed, lots of good stuff and not many flaws at all, and from the looks of previews of the final two issues it’s only going to get better.

So what’s next? Well just within the anniversary (yesterday) the first issue of the next series was released. Intelligence Gathering, by the same team behind Klingons: Blood Will Tell. The first issue is off to a promising start with an engaging story and wonderful artwork, this looks sure to be another hit for IDW.

IDW first year of Star Trek had it’s bumps and hiccups, but overall they’ve done a smashing job, bringing a diverse range of stories by a diverse range of creators with plenty of talent. In the year ahead IDW will be doubling their output of Trek comics with an issue out almost every week, I have great faith that they will continue to deliver enjoyable, engaging and attractive new additions to the Star Trek universe. If they keep up the current, and ever improving, quality of Star Trek comics, then us fans have nothing but goodness ahead.

The Space Between review

This week saw the final issue of IDW’s premier Star Trek comic miniseries Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Space Between. So here’s what I thought of the series.

Issue 1 "History Lesson" – The series kicked off with an interesting season 1 story on the planet Tigan where history gets rewritten. It’s rather familiar to any Stargate fans with the same concept being used in the SG1 episode "Revisions". But this version is a little larger in scope with a whole planet’s history being rewritten and coups happening with no one even knowing. The story was for the most part well written, having a couple of little plot holes that make you join the dots, but mostly enjoyable. And a very attractive start to the series, with lovely colourful bold designs and great use of “sound effects” in a fight scene.

Issue 2 "Captain’s Pleasure" – My favourite issue of the series, a classic “Picard has an adventure” story as the captain takes a bit of time off after the events of the episode "Unification" and enjoys a spot of archaeology. Unfortunately Picard’s holiday curse follows him on every day-off and it turns into serial killing who done it. A completely different tone but just as beautiful art really help the excellent story which like the first issue suffers from being a bit rushed and requiring the reader to join the dots. And that’s where the main flaw of this issue comes in; three pages of the limited twenty-two are devoted to an odd little holodeck B-plot. It’s a nice idea, and if this was a 45 minute TV episode as it seeks to emulate, it would work. But it isn’t and those three pages could have helped a lot in making the already excellent A-plot really fantastic.

Picard's holiday chums really got on

Issue 3 "Strategy" – A mysterious hybrid ship attacks the Enterprise, meanwhile Worf with his Deanna-sense knows he needs to rescue his girlfriend before going to the bridge. The series’ plot holes continue to plague this issue, but it does work. The main story has an interesting adversary and a satisfying conclusion and the B-plot of the Worf-Troi-Riker love triangle is a very well done character piece. Whilst this issue does continue to suffer from leaps of logic in the story, it is one of the most successful because it’s pretty simple and manages to fit everything it has to into the tale. It also drops the first hints of the miniseries being tied together with the mysterious unidentified attacker leaving Picard wary of who might be after the Enterprise.

Issue 4 "Light of Day" – A shuttle crashes on a planet full of zombie monks. Meanwhile on the Enterprise a world destroying scientist come religion fanatic gets to know Data. The main zombie story once more suffers from the series’ characteristic plot holes, but it’s fun and the characters pull it though. The Data B-plot is the real highlight of the issue through, it’s a pretty flawless element of the story which makes this one of the better issues in the series.

Issue 5 "Space Seeds" – The Wesley story, run for the hills! Or in the case the asteroid belt, this is a nice little agricultural mystery with an interesting conclusion, but yep, you guessed it, that conclusion is reached through another series of jumps in logic. And then it gets really interesting, an epilogue! Jumping six years ahead Picard jumps out of bed having apparently figured out what links the miniseries together in his sleep. He has Data do a little data retrieval and finds some dastardly people have been using the Enterprise’s mission logs to conduct evil! That wont do, Picard is out for justice!

Issue 6 "Space Seeds"… part 2? – Jumping straight into the action Riker and Worf beam in to stop some probably baddies doing something on what sort of looks like the Enterprise. Meanwhile Picard has a chat with Admiral Nechayev to tell her of his recent discoveries, but unknown to him she’s in on the conspiracy! Back on the weird fake Enterprise the rest of the main characters are up to something and while Picard has a chat with Boothby he gets shot at by a random Tellarite. Meanwhile on the Enterprise Crusher lies to some random Admiral to cover why the Enterprise is back at Earth. The gang decide to blow up the fake-aprise and then everyone gets to meet the mysterious bad guy. He tells them the Ferengi made him do it (apparently a reference to "Little Green Men" except he refers to events 200 years ago rather than the 400 it would need to be for that to be the case), tells the gang they didn’t manage to blow up his fake enterprise and then beams way maaawww ha ha ha. Picard is sooo angry at that, but he’ll win in the end …or not, the final two pages see the crew enjoying a buffet and a toast back on the Enterprise. The End.

The mysterious bad guy, Section 31? Who knows?

The art throughout the series was generally excellent, the main characters are definitely the weak points, and under the most scrutiny, but the scenery is consistently fabulous and more than makes up for that weakness. The writing though is another story, David Tischman writes the characters perfectly, the stories are all quite interesting, with good concepts and interesting twists and turns. But, every issue in the series suffers plots holes and jumps in logic which make it a pain to read and really drag the whole series down. The series also suffers a from little errors in the text, like he above mentioned Ferengi dating mistake.

Still, each issue works as a stand alone story, and where this series really fails is the conclusion, at the end of the third and fifth issues and throughout the sixth Picard is out to stop these mysterious baddies (kind of maybe Section 31?), but he doesn’t get to, the baddies escape, and what’s worse Picard seems entirely content with that! The ending feels so open I feel… I hope… IDW has something else up their sleeves to finish the story properly.

Each issue of this series, despite the plot holes, is enjoyable, but together it lets you down and I feel IDW would have been better off leaving them just as random one-off stories. IDW’s other series Klingons: Blood Will Tell has managed to both tell individual stories that work fantastically and tie the whole series together, so it definitely could be done, but it didn’t work in this case. David Tischman is writing IDW’s third series Star Trek: Year Four which starts in a fortnight, there’s no indication yet whether that will have some attempt to tie the standalone stories together, I’m hoping not because that’s where he really failed this time. I approach the first issue of that series sure the story will be interesting and the characters well written, I just hope he manages to avoid the constant pattern of plot holes second time round.

IDW September

IDW have posted their September solicitations, including the first issue of Aliens Spotlight which was previously reported to be starting in November, which means IDW will be continuing with two Trek titles a month! This first issue is the Gorn one and sounds frightfully good:

In the vast Star Trek universe, many diverse alien races abound, and now they finally get their due! Presenting a series of one-shots, each by a different creative team and featuring a different Star Trek alien race. In the debut issue, the spotlight shines on the Gorn, courtesy of the Klingons: Blood Will Tell team of Scott & David Tipton and artist David Messina. After their shuttlecraft crash-lands on an uncharted planet, Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov calculate that their odds of survival are somewhat decreased when they find themselves facing off against an army of Gorn warriors. Zach Howard (Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between) provides covers for the entire series, and this issue's artist, David Messina, contributes a variant cover, too.

The Tipton's and Messina are doing an amazing job on Blood Will Tell, I'm very excited about this issue. The other comic out in september is issue three of Star Trek: Year Four:

Captain James T. Kirk becomes suspicious of his crew after returning from the devastated colony on Phi-11. Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy try to reassure him that nothing's wrong—unless Kirk's two most trusted friends are in on the plot, too. What has infected the crew, and how—and who's left to help Kirk regain control of the ship? The Original Crew's return to comic book greatness continues here with this standalone tale written by David Tischman (Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between) and illustrated by Steve Conley, with an additional cover by Joe Corroney.

And finally the official announcement of the The Space Between omnibus edition:

In the first collection of this special miniseries, travel to Tigan-7, Kandom 9, uncharted space, and more—each leading the dedicated crew of the Starship U.S.S. Enterprise into unexpected adventures. If you enjoyed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on television, get ready for the comics adventure you've been waiting for.

I've complained about plot holes in The Space Between, but never the less it's a good series, should be worth getting the omnibus if you haven’t bothered with the individual issues. Interesting how the blurb cites Kandom 9, as did the blurb for the second comic which actually featured the planet Rajatha Prime. It also appears the omnibus will be using cover art from issue five of the miniseries.

The Space Between issue 6 preview

IDW have updated their previews page with five pages and covers from the final issue of The Space Between. From the five page intro it looks like the previous jumbled stories may have been worth it as the mini-series is pull together with what seems to be a Federation Starfleet conspiracy in this issue.

Covers: 1 2 3
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Preview for The Sace Between #5

IDW have put a five page preview up for the next issue of The Space Between, due next week.

Covers: Art, Photo, Retail incentive
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Pages four and five are this image:

Taylor and Tischman interview

Newsarama have themselves another IDW interview, this time with Dan Taylor and David Tischman on the TNG series The Space Between, and specifically the third issue which was out last week.

As is a common theme in IDW gang interviews they strongly reiterate how they are very much trekkies themselves before looking at some of the creative decisions behind the episodic style of The Space Between.

Interestingly on issue four they apparently considered making the guest character Kommandant Ghud a Tiburon (as featured in the TOS episode "The Way to Eden") but decided on a new species in the end.

The full article can be found here.

IDW preview art

IDW have updated their site with lots of new art for Klingons: Blood Will Tell issue 1 and The Space Between issue 4, both out this week.

On the new releases page they have five pages preview for Blood Will Tell in English and Klingon!:
English: covers 1, 2, 3 & 4, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Klingon: cover, pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

And on the same page a five page preview for The Space Between: covers 1, 2 & 3, pages 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5. Which includes this newly released Zach Howard cover:

And as if that wasn't enough on there Art du Jour page they have more pages from Blood Will Tell, the same page, either in pencils, or full colour!

IDW news

Newsarama has three articles on IDW's Star Trek efforts with lots of nice facts and previews.

In an article on Klingons: Blood Will Tell, the TOS miniseries starting this week the writers Scott and David Tipton interview each other on the series and Star Trek comics in general, also making light of their Gorn comic, part of the Alien Spotlight series later in the year. They then provide commentary for a five page preview of issue two of the Klingon series. Check out the article here for their thoughts and lots of new imagery. The article also included this David Messina cover for the third issue:

Another article dealt with IDW’s third miniseries, starting in July, Star Trek: Year Four. The article consists of an interview with the miniseries artist Steve Conley. Amongst the items discussed in the article, which can be found here, it's revealed Arex and M'Ress of The Animated Series will be making appearances. There's also some preview art.

Finally with an article sporting this polished bit of art for the TNG miniseries The Space Between:
There is a general overview of IDW's efforts, to be found here, the article includes a full list of writing credits for the Alien Spotlight series:

-Vulcans, by Rick Remender
-Gorn, by Scott and David Tipton
-Borg, by Steve Niles
-Andorians, by Paul D. Storrie
-Orion Slave Women, by Dan Taylor
-Romulans, by John Byrne

On future projects it suggested more TOS efforts from anywhere from TV to movie era, and potentially tie ins to the new movie due out next year. Also mentioned was the desire to do additional alien spotlights and a continued intention to work exclusively with TOS and TNG for the time being. Though worry not, the writer of the article and IDW editor Dan Taylor would also like to explore DS9 and has stated elsewhere he's interested in getting Peter David to work on New Frontier comics.

Art for The Space Between Issue 3

IDW have put some art up for the third issue of The Space Between, their six part TNG miniseries. This issue which should be available from today features an encounter with a Romulan/Federation/Borg hybrid starship, exciting stuff!

First they have a five page preview for the issue here. Which includes this impressive imagery:

Cover 1, 2 & 3, pages 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

And then on the Art du Jour page they have one of the pages in the preview, at an early and late stage of development, pencilled and then inked and coloured.

IDW June releases

Comics Continuum has put up IDWs releases for July. They include the final issue of "The Space Between", IDWs premier TNG series. And the third issue of "Klingons: Blood Will Tell", a TOS series told from the Klingons point of view.

The final part of The Space Between will apparently be tying together the previous five issues, which at first view would appear to one off stories. It will be interesting to see what they do to bring the stories together.

Blurb for The Space Between Issue 6:
Written by David Tischman with art by Casey Malone.
Jean-Luc Picard has always been an explorer, traveling the galaxy to seek out new life and new civilizations, but after seven years as captain of the Enterprise, he makes a startling discovery‹scientific information from the Enterprise's mission logs has been used to develop deadly weapons systems. Is Starfleet involved? And if so, how high does the conspiracy go? Ignoring direct orders from his superiors, Picard launches an all-out offensive on the secret base where these weapons are stored. Picard is not about to see his mission perverted for military use and strategic control. Five single-issue stories come together in the explosive, action-filled conclusion of "The Space Between."

Blurb for Blood Will Tell Issue 3
Written by David and Scott Tipton with art by David Messina
They say history is written by the victors: Blood Will Tell continues its look at the other side of the coin in the battle between Starfleet and the Klingons! Still struggling against the treaty with the Federation, the Klingon Empire looks for a new way to conquer: behind the scenes, one planet at a time. Can a single Klingon tame a world? Commander Krell aims to try!

As with all IDW's comics these issues will be available in a plethora of covers. Typically there are two covers easily available, one art, one a photomonatge and then additional covers less readily available. Below is one of the covers, by Joe Corroney for The Space Between 6:

The Space Between art preview

IDW have recently posted artwork for part five of their premier miniseries; ''Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between" on there Art Du Jour page.

This is the inked image from the issue titled "Space Seeds"
The pencilled version can still be seen further down the Art Du Jour page.