As a little tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy here are some scans of the Star Trek comic strip as it appeared in Joe 90: Top Secret , TV21 and finally Valiant comic.
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.
This cover is drawn by Harold Johns, who during the fifties worked on the Eagle and illustrated the 1952 Dan Dare story, 'Marooned on Mercury' assisted by fellow Eagle artist Greta Tomlinson, when Frank Hampson became ill.
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.
