Check here for links to interviews, media coverage, article scans and more.
The gents at Fanboy Face-Off were kind enough to chat with me for an hour for a podcast about Trek, comics and all sorts of stuff. Don’t let its name fool you: They let me go heavy on the “fanboy” and easy on the “face-off”, so it’s a fun time.
If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, there’s also a nifty summary of the interview posted by TrekWeb, with a hat-tip to my favorite numerically-challenged blogger drone, 8of5.
Also from TrekWeb, a wide-ranging in-depth interview with me about Star Trek: The Last Generation, as well as the creative partnership with Pocket Books, upcoming IDW projects and lots of other cool behind-the-scenes info on recent Trek comics.
Newsarama reporting on the Star Trek panel that I moderated for Pocket Books at the San Diego Comic-Con, featuring such luminaries as Wil Wheaton, David Mack, Andy Mangels, Margaret Clark, Andy Schmidt and Scott Tipton. (And just where was my old pal KRAD? Oh, right, deadline. No priorities.)
Some additional coverage from TrekMovie.com about IDW’s Trek plans for Trek, including the announcement at the San Diego Comic-Con of my Star Trek: The Last Generation series.
More coverage of the San Diego Comic-Con announcements, from Comic Book Resources. Yes, they called me “Andre”. Truth is, I always kind of liked that, though I could never get anybody to go along with it. (My wife says it’s a word with “one too many letters” for me. I don’t think she was talking about “Andy”…)
Meanwhile, the guys over at Comic Shop News manage to call me “Steven Harris” in giving props and promo to Star Trek: The Last Generation, though it’s by far not the first time that’s happened, and is just the risk you run when you’ve got three first names. (See, it never happens to Ira Steven Behr.) No worries, though; as the old saying goes: So long as they spell your name right. (Hey, wait a minute…)
IDW Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall here gives a cool sneak-peek of the limited edition retailer incentive cover for issue #1 of Star Trek: The Last Generation. I conceived of this cover when I was first writing this series, since I was inspired by a “Star Trek version of Days of Future Past” idea, but I wasn’t sure if this sort of cover homage (to the classic X-Men #141) was one of those “sounded like a good idea at the time” or not. So I composited a Photoshop version, sent it off to Chris, and he loved it. JK Woodward really nailed it in producing the final version.
Here, by the way, is the Diamond Comics Distributor Previews guide ad featuring the official solicitation for the debut of Last Generation, including the main cover for the issue by former X-Factor illustrator Pablo Raimondi. It’s even a featured as a “Spotlight”–which, of course, is utterly poetic, given that one of the covers is of an actual spotlight. (Click on the link for a full scan of the article.)
Over at TrekMovie.com, my pal Tony Pascale convinced me to take a break from (and by “take a break”, I mean “add to”) my crazy schedule and write a guest column for him on Trek comics, which I had been reading for nearly 30 years before finally taking up the helm of editing them for IDW.
(Marvel’s intensely weird first Trek series in 1979, which spun out of The Motion Picture, actually included the first comic book for which I had written a Letter to the Editor as a kid. When I met series scribe Mike W. Barr years later, he was helping launch the Ultraverse for Malibu and I was writing for Wizard Magazine, and I had forgotten all about it; but when I recruited him to write for the Alien Spotlight II series, our Trek conversation reminded me of it, and I mentioned it to him. He finally apologized three decades late that the letter never got printed. Whatever. Bastard. Oh, wait, is this thing still on…?)
Anyway, since I didn’t want to use the column to simply shill for IDW–I did that enough already, yeah?–I thought I’d use Tony’s bandwidth to talk about comics from all the other publishers who had taken on Trek; specifically, the high-profile issues written by series actors, much in the way that Shatner, Nimoy and company had all taken a crack at Trek prose fiction. (Best of the celeb novels: Andrew Robinson’s A Stitch In Time, featuring DS9’s Garak.) It takes a look at issues written by everyone from Mark Lenard to Aaron Eisenberg, including manga scribe Wil Wheaton, Peter David collaborator George Takei, lifelong comics fan Walter Koenig, among others along the way.
And, while we’re looking at journalism pieces about Trek, check out the piece I wrote for Paul Simpson, my friend who helms the official Star Trek Magazine, who likewise used his considerable powers of persuasion to convince me to write a comics article for the outstanding Deep Space Nine extravaganza he and his staff put together. DS9 remains far and away my favorite Trek series; when I lived in Europe, we had precious little English language TV, so I bought the entire series of tapes off a bloke in the U.K. and watched an episode a day for 174 straight days. It’s what got my wife hooked on Trek too. (Click on the link for a full scan of the article.)
My old Alma Mater, Wizard Magazine, with quotes and coverage about the Jack Bauer epic 24: Cold Warriors that I put together with the legendary Beau Smith. When Beau first turned in his script, about Bauer hunting down an ex-Soviet renegade uber-spy in the wilds of Alaska, we had no idea that the Hollywood writer’s strike would sideline the show for the entire season and make the graphic novel, which had been timed to coincide with the new season’s premiere, as the only 24 fix around for fans of the Jack Bauer Power Hour (like me). So, I have to say, it was pretty damn cool–no pun intended–to suddenly find ourselves the show’s standard-bearer for the year.
From an interview a Variety columnist conducted with me about the effect of the Hollywood writer’s strike on the comic books for licensed TV properties like 24, which I edited along with Star Trek, as well as its effect on the Hollywood-comics creative relationship in general.
The guys over at Comic Shop News, with the industry’s largest circulation, deliver an in-depth cover story on Cold Warriors, complete with interviews from myself, Chris Ryall and the creators, along with preview art and other background material. Click for a full scan of the article.
Comic Book Resources gives some spiffy coverage to the Star Trek: Second Stage line of pedigree titles that I conceived of and put together for IDW with editorial kahuna Chris Ryall. I was particularly proud of this promotion, since it brought together some of the top names in Trek storytelling across TV, novels and comics. This was the first big editorial project for Trek that I lifted from the ground up, and I was exceptionally pleased with the results. Fans, too, have really seemed to dig the stuff, soon asking for Second Stage 2.5, 3.0 and so on.
TrekMovie.com does some extensive reporting on our Star Trek: Second Stage project as well, along with coverage of some of our other efforts, from Trek mega-site guru Anthony Pascale himself. As a side note, the “Mirror Universe” image that you see with the press materials has an interesting little story behind it: Since that series was to be the final one released for Second Stage, the inestimable Joe Corroney–perhaps the best Trek cover artist for IDW ever–wasn’t going to be able to schedule it in time for the press announcement with all the other work we had already assigned him. So I took some of his previous artwork, as well as images from the TV show, and filter/composited them with Photoshop to produce the image that you see. I had originally done it simply as an example for our production department, but Ryall thought it was great already and ran with it. (Corroney’s actual cover for issue #1, of course, blew it completely away.) Interestingly enough, I find my Photoshop skillz play an increasingly prominent role in my creative process, from developing pitches to writing to editing, and it’s something I’d encourage other creators, even non-artists, to look into.
Meanwhile, here’s Star Trek Magazine printing a full rundown and interview with me about the Star Trek: Second Stage line, as well as the Star Trek: Intelligence Gathering series. (Click on the link for a full scan of the article.)
Here’s longtime industry mainstay Comic Buyer’s Guide reporting on the Second Stage new line of titles as well.
And here’s an in-depth TrekWeb interview in which we discuss at length the details of the Second Stage comics, along with my work on the Aliens Spotlight: Borg book.
Wizard also reports with comments from me on the Star Trek Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment series that I developed with writer D.C. Fontana, the grande dame of Trek creators from back in the day that she was on staff with Gene Roddenberry. Dorothy was an absolute pleasure to work with, just a joy to talk to; and along with her co-writer, the astute and talented Derek Chester of TV fame, they were both extremely receptive and responsive to editorial guidance in crafting their first comic book story. When they were done, the approvals came back from CBS/Paramount with no changes, along with the feedback, “Reads just like an episode of the TV show.” And you can’t get any higher praise from Trek HQ than that. The art for the series, meanwhile, is from the veteran hand of Gordon Purcell, who’s the penciller on my Star Trek: The Last Generation series.
Here, meanwhile, is TrekMovie.com reviewing the first issue of Enterprise Experiment, with additional reports on some of my upcoming work.
Also from Comic Book Resources, in-depth coverage in which I discuss the Star Trek: New Frontier book that I recruited Peter David to write for IDW. I’m proud of this project as well, not just because it was the launch of the Second Stage books but because this series had been barely a fading glimmer on the horizon when I came to IDW, and I brought it back from the Great Beyond to become the company’s best-selling Trek title in more than a year. I also developed the Quad Cover name and format for the retailer incentive edition, as well as conceived of the limited edition “Captain Peter David” cover from Stephen Thompson, whom I had contacted as soon as Fangoria Comics folded. As a surprise to Peter, we put him in the captain’s chair, in command of ensigns Kirk and Picard, with a special guest appearance by Peter’s creator-owned character Fallen Angel, from another one of Peter’s books that I edited. Little did Stephen and I realize that since I had last seen Peter, he had lost close to 100 pounds, and the cover needed to be redrawn!
Coverage by HeroSpy of the Star Trek: Intelligence Gathering series, in which I get to sing the praises of Los Tipton Bros. and the striking talent of artist David Messina. These guys really delivered on this story for us, some excellent work. And check out Messina’s cool covers!
Comic Book Resources announces the Star Trek: Aliens Spotlight series, including the Borg issue, by yours truly. I only had a couple of days to conceive of and write the entire issue from scratch after original writer Steve Niles had to pull out because of unexpected professional commitments related to the 30 Days of Night film, and I’m proud to say it became one of the best reviewed Trek comics from IDW, ever.
CBG covers the announcement of the Aliens Spotlight series as well.
And, while we’re at it, here’s Star Trek Magazine conducting an interview with me about the the sequel series, Alien Spotlight II, along with discussion about the massively positive critical reception that the first series received. Editor Paul Simpson had flown into Los Angeles from London to visit the set of the new Star Trek film, and then drove down to our offices in San Diego before driving back up on the same day for yet another meeting–a really great guy. (Click on the link for a full scan of the article.)
Press coverage of my debut at IDW from Publishers Weekly, in which I admit some retrospectively embarrassing facts about how I came by my particular career.
And here’s a TrekWeb interview with me from shortly after I took over the Trek comics captain’s chair. It’s interesting to see how things changed since then, such as the possibility of future projects with industry legend John Byrne.
Leave a comment
No comments yet.
Andrew Steven Harris 
Leave a comment