When the Star Trek strip first appeared in Joe 90: Top Secret drawn by Harry Lindfield I had never seen it on TV, so reading that the Captain of the Starship Enterprise is called Kurt, rather than Kirk wouldn't have made much difference to me. I seem to recall first watching it one Saturday evening at some point during the summer of 1969. I wouldn't consider myself a big fan of the series but I'll certainly admit to a fondness for it.
When Joe 90:Top Secret merged with TV21, Joe 90 was apparently selling better than TV21, so Star Trek, along with Land of the Giants, drawn by Gerry Haylock took the top spots, with both strips in full colour.
The Star Trek strip did spend a brief time in black & white drawn by Jim Baikie, but soon returned in full colour with a new artist - Mike Noble, and shortly after Star Trek became TV21's cover strip.
When Mike Noble finished his stint other notable artists also drew the Star Trek strip.
This cover is one of four issues illustrated by Ron Turner.
The strip continued in TV21, drawn by Carlos Pino and Vicente Alca'zar until its final issue when it merged with I.P.C.'s Valiant comic in October, 1971. Star Trek was of two strips (The other being The Tuffs Of Terror Island) to survive the cross over, and would continue in the new Valiant & TV21 until December 1973.
The artist on the Valiant Strip was John Stokes.
However, Star Trek did still appear in the 1971 TV21 annual which was the last gasp for City Magazines.World Distributors produced the 1972 annual and the final 1973 TV21 annual was published by IPC. The above illustration is taken from one of two strip stories in the 1973 annual drawn by Jim Baikie.
Lovely post Scoop. Beautiful artwork. I would say that Spock was as important to the strips as Kirk by the looks of it. What a tortuous route TV21 took towards the end before sadly vanishing altogether,
ReplyDeleteI reckon you're right on both counts, Woodsy. They seemed to use Spock's likeness as much , if not more than Kirk when promoting the strip.
ReplyDeleteTV21 sure did suffer a slow lingering demise following its golden years.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post. As this was after my comic-buying era, was not aware of most of these strips. Interesting that Harry Lindfield seems to have managed the best likenesses, and how difficult some artists seem to have found it to draw the Enterprise in proportion!
ReplyDeleteI agree Andy. Harry Lindfield seem to get both the likenesses and the Enterprise shape just about right. I find it interesting that he was obviously influenced by space suit designs and Pod grabs from 2001: A Space Odyssey .
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