Here are some of the
Star Trek comic book & record combos produced by Power Records back in 1975. The artwork in these comics was provided by
Neal Adams' Continuity Associates (incl. contributions from Adams himself,
Russ Heath and
Dick Giordano), and the stories were written by
Space: 1970 superscribe,
Alan Dean Foster. The dramatic audio plays are pretty good - these two stories in particular are designed to make good use of the format - but suffer from not having any of the original actors involved.
As for the comic book art, it's generally terrific - but these books are somewhat notorious for making Sulu into an African American, and Uhura a blonde! The Animated Series' Lieutenant M'Ress appears in "Passage to Moauv," but instead of being drawn as a felinoid, she looks like an Orion slave girl!
 |
| I still have this one! |
There were additional
Star Trek audio dramas from Power Records that appeared on LP s and 45 RPM records throughout the latter half of the Seventies, including a few that tied-in with the release of
Star Trek - The Motion Picture in 1979.
There are several sites on the web devoted to Power Records, where you can find MP3s of the records and pdfs of the comics. I prefer The
Power Records Plaza, myself.
When I finally got to see the art for the stories made to go along with 'ST:TMP' (having only had one of the albums with 'ST:TMP' photos on it and four stories), I was totally bummed at how bad the art was. The art for the 'TOS'-era was solid from the Continuity Studios gang of 'Crusty Bunkers' as well as Big John Buscema. Loved that 'Dinosaur Planet' story as a kid; almost heartbroken by the hackwork art I saw as a middle-aged man.
ReplyDeleteWin some, lose some.
I had that first one, can still recall the screeching sound.
ReplyDeleteI still proudly own my Passage to Moauv book and record that was given to me when I was in 4th grade. Oh Yeah.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should post this. This past weekend I was able to pick up the first 2 LPs, and one of the comics (sans the record). I'm planning to be recording them to the computer here in the next few weeks. And thanks for the link to the Power Record Plaza!
ReplyDelete"In Vino Veritas" off of the LP is one of my favorite Star Trek stories.
ReplyDeleteI love sci fi artwork .
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting!!!
I have that third record and the bottom one. I have several other of the STTMP version of the comic-record sets too. I remember playing these a lot on my parents old turntable back in the early 80's then I taped them so I could listen to them in my room.
ReplyDeleteI think at the time, there were some contractual disputes and likeness issues with the cast of Star Trek. Originally, Sulu and Uhura were going to be voiced by Doohan and Majel Barrett to save production costs, until Leonard Nimoy insisted on Takei and Nichols returning. Nimoy himself was unwilling to return to Spock until Paramount renegotiated the rights to his likeness, especially upset over a Heineken ad using his image. If you look at some of the interior art, it looks like they simply colored Uhura white, and added an afro to Takei!
ReplyDelete