Omnibus Volume 1 - Star Trek Comics - Issues 4-18

O is for Omnibus!

It can be difficult to find individual comics that are in good condition, especially when it comes to Star Trek comics. Luckily, IDW publishing released omnibuses, in volumes. Volume one, which I own, contains the Marvel Comics issues 4 to 18 - all in one book.

Buying this book is considerably easier than tracking down an buying the individual comics, but has one very serious drawback: the print quality. Throughout this post I will be showing scanned panels from issues 10 and 18 - first from the original comic, and then from the omnibus (click images to enlarge):

As you may see, the artwork is often blurred, and details tend to go missing all together. This may be caused by the resizing of the pages for the book. The colors are brighter, but not always better.

Here Spock and Kirk are turned into pirates on a ship:

The contrast is increased greatly, and the color is more saturated. In some panels, it is not such a distraction:

And in other panels, I find it too distracting to even continue reading:

For this reason, I tend to use my omnibus for reference - I turn to the original issues when I want to read , as art quality and aesthetics are very important to me when it comes to comics.

Below, you may see how certain details and lines disappear completely, altering the entire "essence" of the art:

Often, there is a speckling effect when it comes to blocks of black color:

Once more example (just because I really enjoy these panels) with all of the quality problems I mentioned in one: Over-saturated colors, blurring, white speckling, and disappearing details:

Very distracting, is it not? And not only that, but I feel that publishing something of this quality is degrading to the original artists - vandalism. I really wish they would have worked these issues out before publication.

However - I would like to point out that despite these problems, owning the omnibus is great for reference, and better than nothing if one cannot find the separate issues. The story is still there, and just as amazing.

Klingon Foreheads - A Short Explanation From "Blood Will Tell"

K is for Klingon!

A lot of people wonder why the TOS Klingons look so different from the others we have come to know. Truthfully, it is because of budget differences. Rumor has it that Gene Roddenberry had always wanted the Klingons to appear as they did from TMP on, but there were a lot of restrictions when it came to the original series.

But the world of the creators should have nothing to do with the story - the fans needed another explanation. In Trials and Tribble-ations, Worf is placed along side the Klingons from "The Trouble with Tribbles". In order to explain the difference,  this was added to the script:

Bashir: "Those are Klingons?"
Waitress: "All right. You boys have had enough."
Odo: "Mister Worf?"
Worf: "They are Klingons, and it is a long story."
O'Brien: "What happened? Some kind genetic engineering?"
Bashir: "A viral mutation?"
Worf: "We do not discuss it with outsiders."

More information is gained while reading the comic IDW comic "Blood Will Tell".

"Blood Will Tell" is actually an amazing comic - the reader experiences the stories of conflict between the Klingons and the Federation from a Klingon point of view. Not only that, but in the collection of Volumes 1-5 the story is repeated in the Klingon Language variant edition. I have scanned a portion of the page dealing with the facial differences in Klingon, below which is the English translation (taken from the English portion of the comic):

"QuchHa', the cowards called us. 'The unhappy ones.' How far from the truth. Generations ago, we were conceived for the glory of the Empire, to take the humans' own plot for genetic superiority and create a new race of augmented Klingon warriors!

Unfortunately, the Humans' science failed, and its genetic mutation spread like wildfire, leaving the Empire with twin Klingon races, one bearing the mark of the humans' treachery. 

Although we may not have had the superior strength that was intended, we retained superior ambition, and soon we had gained control of the High Council itself! 

It was our kind who led the Empire's glorious expansion into deep space and conquered countless worlds."

Much is still unclear, and the comic is not considered canon, but I am glad to take any piece of information I can find in my quest to fill in the gaps.