From February 1984 through February 1996, DC Comics held the license to publish comic books based upon the Star Trek franchise, namely Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG).
The main DC Comics Star Trek title was published in two series, comprising 136 issues, 9 annuals, and a number of special issues. Two series were also published based upon Star Trek: The Next Generation, plus several mini-series that linked TOS and TNG.
Publication history Vol. 1 Volume one was published from February 1984–Nov. 1988. It featured stories set after Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Consequently, these are the only notable Star Trek: The Original Series stories to not feature the character of Spock.
In addition to the Star Trek original cast, original characters in this series included the bigoted Native American Ensign William Bearclaw, Ensign Nancy Bryce, the bird-like Dr. Chu-Sa, Lt. Commander Maria Morelli, Ensign Elizabeth Sherwood, and the Klingons Konom and Bernie. There were also appearances by Arex and M'Ress, previously seen in Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Issue Title Writer(s) Pencils Inks Notes v1 #1 (2/84) "The Wormhole Connection" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran George Pérez cover. Koloth appearance. First appearances of Bearclaw, Bryce, Konom, and Sherwood. v1 #2 (3/84) "The Only Good Klingon..." Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran George Pérez cover; Koloth appearance v1 #3 (4/84) "Errand of War!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran George Pérez cover; Kor, Excalbians appearances v1 #4 (5/84) "Deadly Allies!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Excalbians & Organians appearances v1 #5 (6/84) "Mortal Gods" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Sal Amendola Robert Fox appearance v1 #6 (7/84) "Who Is... Enigma?" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #7 (8/84) "Pon Far!" (sic) Mike W. Barr Eduardo Barreto Ricardo Villagran Origin of Saavik; David Marcus, Sarek, Amanda Grayson appearances v1 #8 (11/84) "Blood Fever" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran David Marcus, Xon v1 #9 (12/84) "New Frontiers Chapter 1: ...Promises to Keep" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Stories set after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock begin; start of a Mirror Universe story; Sarek, Amanda, Captain Styles, Carol Marcus; wake for David Marcus v1 #10 (1/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 2: Double Image" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe; Sarek, Amanda, Captain Styles, Carol Marcus v1 #11 (2/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 3: Deadly Reflection!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe; Sarek, Amanda, Captain Styles, Carol Marcus v1 #12 (3/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 4: The Tantalus Trap!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe v1 #13 (4/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 5: Masquerade!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe v1 #14 (5/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 6: Behind Enemy Lines!" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe v1 #15 (6/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 7: The Beginning of the End..." Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe v1 #16 (7/85) "New Frontiers Chapter 8: Homecoming..." Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Mirror Universe; Styles, Carol Marcus. Kirk assigned USS Excelsior, Spock assigned to command of USS Surak. First appearance of Brinks. v1 #17 (8/85) "The D'Artagnan Three" L. B. Kellogg Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Uhura backstory, old flame, Kabaka Buganda. Called "Nyota" v1 #18 (9/85) "Rest and Recreation!" Paul Kupperberg Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Scotty solo adventure, set on Starbase VII v1 #19 (10/85) "Chekov's Choice" Walter Koenig Dan Spiegle Between Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan v1 #20 (11/85) "Giri" Wenonah Woods Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sulu's uncle Kiyomori Hatoyama and wedding of cousin Keiko Hatoyama v1 #21 (12/85) "Dreamworld" Bob Rozakis Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran First story set on the Surak; first appearances of Chu-Sa and McCarthy. v1 #22 (1/86) "Wolf on the Prowl" Tony Isabella Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "Wolf in the Fold" v1 #23 (2/86) "Wolf at the Door" Tony Isabella Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "Wolf in the Fold" v1 #24 (3/86) "Double Blind, Part I" Diane Duane Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Comic debuts of Pocket Books novel characters, Naraht the Horta, Harb Tanzer and Janice Kerasus. v1 #25 (4/86) "Double Blind, Part II" Diane Duane Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #26 (5/86) "The Trouble With Transporters!" Bob Rozakis Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Second story set on the Surak; first appearances of Garace and Mello. v1 #27 (6/86) "Around the Clock" Robert Greenberger Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran First appearance of Morelli. v1 #28 (7/86) "The Last Word" Diane Duane Gray Morrow McCoy story written by a registered nurse. Comic debuts of Pocket Books novel original characters, Lia Burke and Dr Tom Krejci. Referenced are Athende the Sulamid and Avoca. v1 #29 (8/86) "The Trouble With Bearclaw" Tony Isabella Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #30 (9/86) "Uhura's Story" Paul Kupperberg Carmine Infantino Ricardo Villagran Flashback to 5-year mission; Uhura's given name stated as "Nyota" v1 #31 (10/86) "Maggie's World!" Tony Isabella & Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Koloth v1 #32 (11/86) "Judgment Day!" Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Koloth v1 #33 (12/86) "Vicious Circle!" Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "Tomorrow is Yesterday"; TOS Enterprise meets movie-era Enterprise; issue timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Star Trek in September 1986 v1 #34 (1/87) "The Doomsday Bug! Chapter I: Death Ship!" Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran USS Surak destroyed. Cartwright appearance v1 #35 (2/87) "The Doomsday Bug! Chapter II: Stand-Off!" Len Wein Gray Morrow Styles appearance v1 #36 (3/87) "The Doomsday Bug! Chapter III: The Apocalypse Scenario!" Len Wein Gray Morrow Styles retakes USS Excelsior; "reset button" pressed to restore the crew's situation to effectively its status at the end of Star Trek III v1 #37 (4/87) "Choices!" Len Wein Curt Swan Pablo Marcos Stories set immediately after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home begin, aboard the Enterprise-A; Arex and M'Ress join the crew v1 #38 (5/87) "The Argon Affair!" Michael Fleisher Adam Kubert Ricardo Villagran During 5-year mission v1 #39 (6/87) "When You Wish Upon a Star...!" Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Harry Mudd v1 #40 (7/87) "Mudd's Magic!" Len Wein Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Harry Mudd v1 #41 (8/87) "What Goes Around..." Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Orions v1 #42 (9/87) "The Corbomite Effect!" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran President Hiram Roth appearance v1 #43 (10/87) "Paradise Lost!, Part I: Return of the Serpent" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "The Apple" v1 #44 (11/87) "Paradise Lost!, Part II: Past Perfect" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "The Apple" v1 #45 (12/87) "Paradise Lost!, Part III: Devil Down Below!" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Sequel to "The Apple" v1 #46 (1/88) "Getaway" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #47 (2/88) "Idol Threats" Michael Carlin Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #48 (3/88) "The Stars in Secret Influence" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Konom's bachelor party; first appearance of Bernie v1 #49 (4/88) "Aspiring to Be Angels" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran v1 #50 (5/88) "Marriage of Inconvenience" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Wedding of Konom and Nancy; Hiram Roth, Klingon Ambassador appearances. First appearances of Castille, Bloemker, and Sterno. v1 #51 (6/88) "Haunted Honeymoon" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Characters from comic strip Bloom County appear in one panel as part of a hallucination v1 #52 (7/88) "Hell in a Handbasket" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Telepathic re-creation of Hell as depicted in The Divine Comedy v1 #53 (8/88) "You're Dead, Jim" Peter David Gordon Purcell Ricardo Villagran v1 #54 (9/88) "Old Loyalties" Peter David Gordon Purcell Ricardo Villagran Finnegan appearance v1 #55 (10/88) "Finnegan's Wake!" Peter David Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Finnegan, Garth of Izar appearances v1 #56 (11/88) "A Small Matter of Faith" Martin Pasko Gray Morrow During 5-year mission; not known at time of publication that this would be the final issue
Vol. 1 Annuals Issue Title Writer(s) Pencils Inks Notes v1 Annual #1 (1985) "All Those Years Ago..." Mike W. Barr David Ross Bob Smith 1st mission of the 5-year mission; appearance of Christopher Pike and Number One. v1 Annual #2 (1986) "The Final Voyage" Mike W. Barr Dan Jurgens Bob Smith Final mission of the 5-year mission; appearance of Willard Decker and the Talosians. v1 Annual #3 (1988) "Retrospect" Peter David Curt Swan Ricardo Villagran Death of Scotty's wife; funeral of Peter Preston.
Vol. 1 Movie adaptations Issue Title Writer(s) Pencils Inks Notes v1 Star Trek III (1984) "The Search for Spock" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Adaptation of the 1984 film. v1 Star Trek IV (1987) "The Voyage Home" Mike W. Barr Tom Sutton Ricardo Villagran Adaptation of the 1986 film. v1 Star Trek V (1989) "The Final Frontier" Peter David James W. Fry Arne Starr Adaptation of the 1989 film.
Vol. 2 Star Trek volume 2 was published from Oct. 1989 – Feb. 1996. It featured stories set after Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.