John Byrne is no stranger to breaking new ground and he is doing it again with the extra-length Star Trek Annual 2013, arriving this December from IDW.
Byrne returns to the Star Trek universe in an entirely unexpected way—for this annual, he has created a completely original Star Trek story that plays out like a “lost episode,” using a uniquely constructed photomontage to create an entirely new story. “Strange New Worlds” serves as a direct sequel to the fan-favorite episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which aired as the third episode of Star Trek’s first season in 1966.
“There was a visual richness to that second pilot that really drew me in,” said writer/artist John Byrne, “and since I have long wanted to experiment with something like this project, that episode seemed the perfect choice for a sequel.”
Years ago, James Kirk saved his ship, but the price was the life of his oldest friend in Starfleet—or was it? Fans will see Gary Mitchell’s story take a surprising turn in this story. But the uniqueness of this project does not end with the plotline; rather, it continues with the photomontage art form that Byrne has chosen to tell this original story. Star Trek photonovels, in which a book was created by adapting a film or television episode using actual film stills in place of traditional artwork, with narrative text and dialogue presented in word balloons, were popular in the late 1970s. But this is where the past becomes the future—Byrne didn’t just insert film stills, he created them. In order to tell a new Star Trek story in this “fumetti” style, he did much more than pluck existing images, instead compositing together multiple pieces of film stills and manipulating them to tell the exact story he wanted.
“This project started out as just a fun diversion for John in between other projects,” said Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall, “and as is wont to happen with JB, it continued to grow and become something much bigger than his original intent. It’s a blast to see an ‘all-new’ original series episode done this way. Byrne has produced over 500 pages of Star Trek comics for us already, but I can promise readers that they’ve never seen this kind of Star Trek comic from him before.”
Star Trek Annual 2013, a 48-page issue, is under license by CBS Consumer Products and will be in stores third week of December.
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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