2018 will be a year of change for Star Trek comics in more ways than one, it seems. Following December’s news that the monthly Kelvin Timeline comic series, Star Trek: Boldly Go, will be wrapping up after April’s issue #18, we’ve learned today that another long-running series will be ending this year, Star Trek: New Visions.
New Visions is comic legend John Byrne’s four-year “photonovel” comic project, creating new Original Series-era stories from screencaptured moments from the classic Star Trek episodes, repurposed for his tales.
To date, IDW Publishing has released 20 issues of the series, along with an adaptation of “The Cage” and a special exclusive standalone issue, with issue #21 due in April. On his forum last night, Byrne revealed (and IDW confirmed to TrekCore today) that the series is set to conclude with issue #24.
Issue 24 will be my last of NEW VISIONS, at least on anything like a regular schedule. Paramount is allowing me to bow out with one last big itch scratched. It’s been an amazing amount of fun, but I’ve felt this coming for a while — especially since my 26 total issues equate to a full “season”…
My STAR TREK work at IDW has allowed me to scratch a lot of itches! From why the Enterprise simply disappeared out of the sky when Captain Christopher was beamed back into his jet (and himself), to how dropping a rock on someone as powerful as Gary Mitchel could kill him, to how a ship that big could have only one transporter room. And the “bowling alley”, of course. And more.
This last one (for now) is gonna be a biggie!
Longtime IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall, who announced yesterday that he is stepping down from his position at the publisher, shared his thoughts on the project’s conclusion in a statement provided to TrekCore:
Working with John on Star Trek projects for the past 10+ years has been one of the abject thrills of my career.
It’s been a blast seeing him have so much fun with New Visions and develop and master this new form of storytelling, and with what I know about the final issue’s storyline, he’s going to end his complete new “season” in a suitably big and explosive way.
We’ve reviewed all of the New Visions issues, and of course we’ll be following the series through the final chapter when it arrives. With Byrne’s reference to Paramount — and not CBS — in his announcement, perhaps he’ll be taking on a movie-era story?
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Byrne also shared a look ahead to part of April’s New Visions #21, featuring a secondary story with Captain Pike’s Enterprise crew:
There’s a backup story featuring Captain Pike and his crew, and that made for some complicated building. As before, I set my tale a few years after “The Cage”, so I’m using the “older” Spock from “Where No Man has Gone Before”, and also Scotty, Kelso and Dr. Piper from the same episode.
Which meant bouncing around my online image sources, since I have not downloaded all the shots as with the actual TOS pics. Slows things down! But I did get to make practical use of the Pike era Bridge model I built a while back.
I resisted giving Pike white temples, as much as I enjoy the Reed Richards analogy!
Watch for our review of New Visions #21 when it arrives in April.
Keep coming back to TrekCore for the latest in Star Trek comic news!