Cover Art - Star Trek - Book

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 03:23 AM

There was a time when Star Trek was not the animal it is now, It had as
some of you will know more humble beginnings.I have been a fan since the
1970s when I first saw it on TV, it was been syndicated on BBC or some
other channel, When I saw it I was hooked and watched avidly.

Then it vanished from the screens for many years, at least on my side of
the Atlantic, Star Wars came and went but I still liked Trek more so than
the great adventures seen in Star Wars, Perhaps because it was not in a
Galaxy far far away.

Then I found some Star Trek Books the covers and like the show where
colourful, capturing the look and the feel of the show far more than the
usual sci-fi book cover fare at the time.

I still have these books by James Blish and here are those images that
grabbed my attention and imagination back in the 1980s.

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James Blish wrote the stories for Star Trek 1 through to Star Trek 11. Star Trek 12
was jointly credited to Blish and J.A. Lawrence (his wife), after the death of Blish
in July 1975. The stories were collected in four hardcover titles named The Star Trek
Reader 1,2,3 and 4 in 1976 and 1977. The Harry Mudd stories had been saved for a novel,
and eventually were published together, with an original story written by Lawrence.

The artist name is "Chris Achilleos" and these are his covers painted for Star Trek.
you can see more of his work here:
http://chrisachilleos.co.uk/the-arti...strations.html

Two of the covers 2 & 4 I will change in the future as soon as
I can either scan or locate them.

Tenement · October 18th, 2011, 09:04 AM

The James Blish, Star Trek novelisations were the 70's version of having the episodes on video. I've still got them though they're a bit dog eared now.

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 09:15 AM

Yeah for sure I have a few of Blish books and think of them in that very way. they have differences of course,

like instead of doors sliding open, Kirk would pull it open and the like..

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 12:22 PM

I also remember the old Gold Key Star Trek comics, anyone else remember them.

here is one cover from one of my favourite stories

Tenement · October 18th, 2011, 12:34 PM

I'm not seeing the image for the Gold key comic.

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 12:46 PM

I fixed it.

Tenement · October 18th, 2011, 01:31 PM

It reminds me of the artwork that you used to see over the end credits of Captain Scarlet. No messing with angst in comics of the 60's and early 70's, just straight to the action.

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 02:42 PM

yeah,,,, did you ever read them... like the Blish books like gold dust, and sometimes hard to find

gmd3d · October 18th, 2011, 02:43 PM

I will add more covers if anyone is interested

Tenement · October 19th, 2011, 05:29 AM

I'm afraid I didn't read any of the Gold Key comics. (Though I did read some of the strips from the comics that had been reprinted in the hardback annuals that were released for Christmas during the seventies and I've found a few sites that have complete strips that you can read.) I did have a few of the Marvel Star Trek comics that were printed after STMP. (I still have a paper back edition and I'll scan the cover at some point soon and upload it.)

gmd3d · October 19th, 2011, 05:32 AM

cool I look forward to seen these old gems

gmd3d · October 19th, 2011, 05:34 AM

here is another by Chris Achilleos

evil_genius_180 · October 19th, 2011, 09:55 AM

For people interested in the comics:

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Comp...9039419&sr=1-4
(Amazon UK has it too, but there appears to only be 1 copy being sold by an individual, not Amazon itself.)

I bought that last year and it's awesome. The comics are in .pdf format, so it works in any OS with a .pdf viewer.

I love the old covers. I used to use some of those in my pencil and paper days as references to draw the Enterprise. I love that Immunity Syndrome one. If you want to post some more, Ger, that sounds great.

gmd3d · October 19th, 2011, 01:08 PM

yeah I had the old gold key one. I really enjoyed them..

I will post another soon

gmd3d · October 19th, 2011, 01:27 PM

I will post them in my first post,

here is anther a favourite of mine.

evil_genius_180 · October 19th, 2011, 09:56 PM

That's cool. I remember those old numbered books. I never saw one with that snazzy of a cover, though.

gmd3d · October 20th, 2011, 02:16 AM

there is more... all that I can find, I mush check the collection I have to see if I have the covers not found on line and have them scanned.

Here is Volume 1. Star Trek Book Cover. each book has 5 or 6 episodic stories

Tenement · October 20th, 2011, 02:19 AM

I've got different editions to the ones you've posted. I'll dig em' out and scan them cos' the covers on mine are pretty plain.

gmd3d · October 20th, 2011, 02:26 AM

cool I like to see them. possibly I have one or to of them as I have a mixed collection.

looking at these covers has me once again jazz up watching the original series again. there is just something about this old show that just grabs you back again and again.

Tenement · October 20th, 2011, 04:05 AM

Scary to think that the show is 45 years old.

gmd3d · October 20th, 2011, 04:27 AM

sure is ...... I think it was first shown on BBC .... we could get that in Ireland back then ..
I been looking over the net for more of Chris Achilleos and found 2 are missing. qucikly checking on my few copies I find I have them and will have them scanned asap.

gmd3d · October 20th, 2011, 04:28 AM

Oh and I am going to edit the images in the first post and just put in the covers for the novels and remove the comic one for now....

gmd3d · October 21st, 2011, 12:06 PM

Posted all the James Blish Star Trek book covers in the first post

Tenement · October 21st, 2011, 12:29 PM

So different from the covers on my editions.

gmd3d · October 21st, 2011, 12:42 PM

I have been looking for some others,

are the images too big ... or are they OK ?

Tenement · October 22nd, 2011, 08:43 AM

Image size seems pretty good.

gmd3d · October 22nd, 2011, 08:50 AM

Cool ..... I will add some more, its starting to get my rendering creative side going .. hope to have some renders in the future.... one of the members of deviantart and here Arcass has been doing some awesome versions of them .. I will ask if I can post here or even better ask him to post them.... I mean if I saw them I would by a copy

evil_genius_180 · October 22nd, 2011, 09:24 AM

Those are great. I've seen those books but not with those covers. You can tell at least one of the episodes that is in each book just by the cover image. I have one of Blish's books, Spock Must Die!, but I haven't read it in ages.

gmd3d · October 22nd, 2011, 09:26 AM

They where Corgi covers I think....

I have it and like you I have not read it in years. I must do so.. I think it (Spock Must Die) was the second Star Trek book released after
Mission to Horatius

evil_genius_180 · October 22nd, 2011, 09:37 AM

I also have Mission to Horatius, but it's the 1999 hardcover reprint. The original was released in 1968. The copy of Spock Must Die! that I have might be an original, it's copyright 1970. (I got it at a used book store) I don't know fast they whipped out these books back then, so it very well could be the 2nd one. I know that Star Trek books didn't really pick up steam until the 1980s, when they started coming out with a lot of them a year, so it could have been 2 years between books back in the 60s and 70s.