Join the discussion on IDW's STAR TREK message board!

San Diego, CA (October 6, 2006)- It's not a rift in the space/time continuum- IDW Publishing is pleased to announce the return of Star Trek to the realm of comic books. The legendary science fiction franchise that's spanned six television series, ten motion pictures, and hundreds of novels, celebrates its 40th anniversary by naming IDW Publishing as the source for all-new Star Trek comic book voyages.

IDW's plans for the Star Trek franchise in comics are far-reaching, and will unfold over the next few months. The first Star Trek miniseries will debut in January 2007, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation�. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise� NCC-1701-D return with an all-new adventure that will span The Next Generation timeline. The six-issue miniseries, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between, begins by setting the scene during the first year of the Enterprise-D's mandated mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly going "where no one has gone before."

At the helm of this first venture is writer David Tischman (Bite Club), who is joined by artist Casey Maloney (Children of the Grave). Artists Dennis Calero (X-Factor) and Zach Howard (Shaun of the Dead) will provide 50/50 covers for the first issue.

But that's just the beginning. IDW Publishing will be producing additional Star Trek titles with a new line of comic book projects in the rich tradition of 40 years of science fiction excellence.

"I couldn't be happier to be shepherding Star Trek comics in the 21st century," said IDW's Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. "Not only is this one of the most storied franchises in all of entertainment, but its history in comics is a long one, too. And yet, despite the abundance of different Star Trek comics that have come along in the past, we've hit on some unique ways to bring new vibrancy and creativity to the line. I look forward to building on the legacy that stretches back to the Gold Key comics I read as a kid and moving the franchise forward into the future. Well, further into the future, that is. Can't wait to let the fans know more of what we have in mind."

Star Trek The Next Generation: The Space Between issue #1 (of 6) debuts in January 2007.

TM, � & � 2006 CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.

IDW Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall was recently interviewed for NEWSARAMA about the future of STAR TREK comics. This is what he had to say:

TO BOLDLY KEEP GOING: TALKING TREK AT IDW
by Matt Brady

In January, as an early kickoff to the 20th anniversary (yes, 20 - we checked) of the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek will return to a medium its been associated with several times over the years - comics.

This time, IDW Publishing, home of 30 Days of Night, CSI, 24, and Transformers comics - along with a wide variety of other creator-owned and licensed titles will be the publisher bringing the science fiction property to comic books.

Comic versions of Trek have seen their share of publishers, starting with Gold Key in the '60s and '70s, Marvel in the early '80s, DC in the latter '80s and mid '90s, Malibu/Marvel in the late '90s, and the DC imprint, Wildstorm, in the early part of this decade, and most recently, Tokyopop gave it a go with a manga anthology of stories set during the Original Series Timeline.

So what's the IDW take on the property going to be like, especially given the present Trek condition of no ongoing television series, and a movie nearly two years away? We sat down with IDW Editor in Chief and Publisher Chris Ryall to learn more.

Newsarama: First off, how did you get hooked up with the property? And probably more importantly, why? No offense on your business judgment, but it's been a cooling off time for Trek over the past few years as Enterprise died its slow death. What made you look at the property and think, "Winner!"?

Chris Ryall: Regarding the "how" part of the question, after years of doing CSI comics, we've developed a solid relationship with CBS/Paramount. I'd been talking about their plans for Star Trek for some time, and through our discussions, we got to talking about comics, and what we'd do with the franchise if we took it over. Eventually, that turned into us being granted the comics license.

As to the "why," and this cooling-off period and all, the implication in the question is that people don't care about Trek any more, which I don't think is true.

NRAMA: Well, let me clarify a little - not that they don't care, it's just that right now, in the history of the franchise, it is, as a property, at an ebb, given that there's no television series on, the last series that was on wasn't all that popular, and there's a good year and a half until a movie...

CR: Okay - got where you're coming from. The franchise has had its ups and downs, but so has any 40-year-old franchise - just ask James Bond fans or Spider-Man fans. While Enterprise might not have captured peoples' imagination as much as it could have, it was also coming at the end of two decades' worth of Trek TV shows, and it featured characters that were new to fans. From the perspective of comic books, while many (most?) publishers have shepherded the comics at one point or another, it's been years since there was ongoing Trek comics. And we'd be featuring characters that have been known and loved for decades, not introducing new characters like with Enterprise.

But more to the point, with a franchise like Star Trek, and its universe of rich characters, fans are only as "cool" to new projects as the ideas being presented. I think any cooling-off period is due more to ideas that don't capture their imagination than it is to indifference to the idea of new Trek adventures. And between our comic ideas and a talented guy like J.J. Abrams re-imagining the universe in a new movie, these are good indications that the franchise is alive and well and just waiting for good new creative talent.

NRAMA: That said though, why do you think the Trek comic book license has languished for years?

CR: I think for a while, after some less-than-successful efforts, it wasn't a bad thing that the comics stopped for a time. But things didn't languish as much as they did just wait until Paramount was ready to have another go with them.

Also, licensed comics are tricky.

NRAMA: How so?

CR: Well, when big publishers take on licenses, there can be a tendency to focus less effort on those than on the company's lifeblood. But for us, a company that takes licenses that might not work as comics in theory (CSI) and does well with them, it's easier to focus on really doing these things right. Which isn't to disparage the efforts of anyone who handled the comics before-many were quite good. It's more of a matter of focusing fans in a certain direction, and the X-Men and Superman are just going to get more marketing dollars put behind them than a licensed books. So things didn't necessarily languish as much as they did wait for someone to develop a new approach.

NRAMA: Moving to the specifics - what rights do you have, specifically?

CR: For now, we'll be focusing on the Next Generation - which begins its 20th anniversary celebration in January, the month of the comics debut, with The Original Series to come. From there, we'll see.

NRAMA: Do you have the rights to go into "uncharted" pardon the pun - space? Say, a miniseries focusing on new characters in a previously unseen branch of Starfleet?

CR: If things work, then yeah, we could look to handle different areas.

NRAMA: If you can, pull back the curtain a little - how do you manage a property like Trek that has many incarnations and fans? Obviously, at one extreme, there's a "launch everything!" approach, with only doing one title at the other extreme. What went into your decisions in regards to landing on that continuum?

CR: We certainly don't want to go too strong from the start-I'm wary of having a glut of books out there all at once - from an overall company standpoint as well as a Trek standpoint. So we'll begin with one book and then roll out from there. The only real drawback to that is that we really have some cool things planned and I'm anxious to get to them.

NRAMA: In regards to comic Trek fans, which franchise do you think has more/the most fans? Is that the property you're going to launch with?

CR: It's hard to say, and in some regards, it seems split by age. Paramount's research shows that The Next Generation has the biggest fanbase; however, everyone will always first think of the Original crew when they think "Star Trek." But rather than thinking that, since both do have a huge fanbase, we decided to lead off with TNG, in honor of its 20-year anniversary.

NRAMA: Okay - so, the lead-off Next Generation project - who's the team, and what kind of stories are you looking to tell?

CR: Creatively, we're starting with a 6-issue miniseries by writer David Tischman and artist Casey Malone called The Space Between - and that title makes sense to the story-it's not that David's a huge Dave Matthews Band fan, as he assured me. We've got covers from guys like Jeremy Geddes, Zach Howard, and Dennis Calero at the start. And it's set sometime during the Enterprise-D's first year.

NRAMA: How's it being approached, story-wise? Obviously, with CSI and 24, you have experience with adopting both television style and storytelling to comics...

CR: Story-wise, I like the idea of treating the issues as episodes, rather than telling one huge six-part story. That way, we effectively have a six-part season that nevertheless has a bigger story to tell by the end. Meaning that each story stands alone, but also sets up elements that will link them all together by the end.

NRAMA: With Trek, the fans are as down with continuity as comic fans - or Transformers fans are - you up to the challenge that presents?

CR: We figured we'd just wing it, since Trek fans-like Transformers fans-aren't very vocal if the details are wrong. So whether Picard flies around in Enterprise-D, Enterprise-Q or Enterprise-$, no one is really going to notice, right?

NRAMA: Actually, it's the Enterprise-BADA$$, and you are kidding, right?

CR: Yup. Just in case there is a vocal contingent, both Tischman and editor Dan Taylor are huge, huge Trek guys. You should hear the conversations coming from Dan's office-it's the kind of talk that, if it happened on a date, the girl end up joining the convent.

NRAMA: Ah, the virginity-ensuring nerdspeak of the die-hard Trekkers?

CR: Right. But since it's happening at a comics company in the context of producing the most accurate and entertaining comics possible, it's great to hear.

NRAMA: So - The Space Between to start - what does the rest of the Trek rollout from IDW look like?

CR: So far, we've got this first book planned and scheduled for January release. Other titles are planned but they're not quite anything I can talk about yet. So I'll hold off giving details on our Klingon comic and... well, never mind...

NRAMA: Are you going to be working with Paramount as the movie gets closer? And that's a re-envisioning of TOS, right?

CR: Yes, we are, and, um, wait, what was the second part of the question?

NRAMA: Is that a way to dodge answering or revealing any information you may have about the movie?

CR: No, no not at all. Yes.

NRAMA: Going back to what you said about licensed comics at larger publishers... not to cast aspersions on your fellow publishers who deal with spandex and tights, but it seems like that, if a Marvel or a DC had a hold of Trek, their launch would be...splashy. Big - Ellis/Millar/Johns/Waid written, hot artist drawn, featuring Picard versus Predators... or Kirk versus Terminators... or Klingon War... or Horta Love Special. Okay, maybe not that last one, but the overall idea - doing something HUGE with Trek. Is that an option for you, either as being allowed by Paramount, or even as a road you want to go down?

CR: Again, no disparaging of whatever's been done before, since I really loved what Peter David and Mike Barr did in the past for DC, and thought Jeff Mariotte put together some good books at Wildstorm - hell, I even loved the old Gold Key comics, even though you can't tell who's who at all when you look at that art, but I want to take a different approach.

Starting off with a huge story means that the subsequent story needs to be huge-ER. And up from there. And if you start off with a big story that fails to capture people at the start, you run the risk of losing them for the entire miniseries. AND the story drives the action, often at the expense of characterization. The things I love about Trek are the character interplay, and also the old stories that took hard science ideas and took them in interesting directions, along with the parallels to our own world. So we're doing "episodic comics" here, which will give the characters a chance to shine, and really let David use some of his Ellis-like science knowledge - yes, Bite Club readers, he has more in his head than lesbian vampires, believe it or not - to tell a good story. And the cool thing about the way it's all designed is that, while the stories "stand alone," by the time you get to issue #5 and #6, you'll also see how they link together and culminate in a really satisfying conclusion.

The other drawback regarding a big event comic is that, inevitably, writers grab someone like Q or some other existing villain and try to tell the biggest story possible. And not to say that that kind of approach can sometimes feel like fan-fiction... but that kind of approach can sometimes feel like fan-fiction. We're very much approaching this from the point of view of "if we were doing a six-episode season of TNG, what would it be?" There's room for a Sweeps stunt once we really get things working properly.

As far as art goes, I wanted a style that would work with the characters, the world that already exists, and an ability to handle any crazy idea that David threw into the script. An artist who didn't have so many personal tics to his style that the book became style over substance. Casey's early pages for this book seem perfectly suited to what we want to do here.

NRAMA: Compltely ignoring the comments against it, looking at the market, event stories have become the rage - any Trek events planned?

CR: Well, it's weird, but our proposal to Paramount actually had us outing a character against the backdrop of a huge galactic civil war, told in fifty-two weekly issues. But we decided that Trek returning to comics was event enough, so we wouldn't go that route. Honestly, after seeing the past Star Trek comics efforts come and go, I'm much more focused on kicking things off properly. Events can come later.

NRAMA: Looking forward, there are *cough*PeterDavid*cough* writers you've got working for you who are pretty well versed in Trek. Any plans on bringing them over?

CR: Sure, as soon as Joe Quesada and Dan Buckley let Peter free from his exclusive contract. Or, wait, maybe Peter can give us an "inventory" miniseries he's "had in his drawer for years" or something, to work around the exclusive? But no, unfortunately, Peter's locked up there (other than his ability to keep doing his creator-owned Fallen Angel comic for us). When we first started talking, I did approach Peter right away, partly because I loved his old Trek comics and novels, and partly because if Peter David wrote nearly every title we produce, that would make me happy.

But he's exclusive and doing great stuff at Marvel, and the good thing is, there are so many good writers who have an affinity for Star Trek that the one area I'll never be lacking is good people who have ideas for Star Trek comics.

Join the discussion on IDW's STAR TREK message board!