During the last year or so, at the ripe old age of 47, I've found enjoyment in...comics. No lie. I can't believe it myself.
I hadn't picked up a comic since I was in junior high school. One of my greatest friends (I've known him since sixth grade), has always been into comics. He tried to get me into The Watchmen, Sin City, and The Dark Knight back in the 80's and 90's, long, long before any of them were movies.
Due to my love of Conan The Barbarian, I picked up my first comic in my adult life, and to my utter surprise...I liked it.
On this day, I'm still not what I would call a comicbook reader. I don't run down to the local comics dealer and spend $200 bucks on single issues. I don't follow super heroes. In fact, my taste is eclectic and a bit nostalgic. I like collections, trades, and omnibuses. I don't want to spend a lot. And, I follow a few narrow interests: I like original Star Trek, James Bond, original trilogy Star Wars, Flash Gordon, and all things having to do with the Hyborian or Thurian Ages: Conan, Red Sonja, Kull.
There's a few other things I've looked at (Criminal and Sgt. Rock comes to mind), but that's just me dabbling here and there to see if anything suits my peculiar taste.
Really, though, this is all just a long winded way of saying: If you've ever been tempted to try comics, then you should. I really get an enjoyment out of the few that I read. For me, my enjoyment is closer to what I get out of a good movie or televison program rather than a good book. The frames and illustrations are like story-boards. I can picture the action inside my head--hear the sounds. When I read the comic adaptation of Howard's Tower of the Elephant, I was there with Conan, high above the Zamorian city. It was dark. There was a slight breeze. I could hear my sandals grate on the grit of the side of the tower as I strained to pull myself up the side, grasping that strange rope woven from women's hair. Then, at the top, when that big, hairy spider jumped us...all I can remember now, is the smell.
For me, reading comics...the right comics....the ones that interest me--it's a fantastic experience. I let my imagination run with it.
So...what has this to do with Star Trek or Gaming?
Well, I'm gonna tell ye.
I recently picked the first of a two volume set: Star Trek The Newspaper Strip Vol. 1. Now, I know what you're thinking. Newspaper strips? Even from the point of view of those who regularly read comics, newspaper strips aren't known for their art or their depth.
But, I gotta tell ya. If you like Star Trek, especially old Star Trek, you'll love this book. It picks up right after the 1979 film, Star Trek The Motion Picture, and the strip is supposed to be Kirk's second five year mission before the events of Wrath of Khan take place.
Kirk remains a captain, and the entire crew is there...and the stories! Even I wasn't expecting the quality of stories I've read so far (I've read the first two of ten stories presented in this vol).
Tell me if this doesn't sound like a good Trek episode to you--
(This is an outline of the first story in the book...).
The Enterprise picks up an old style radio message. All it says is, "Come." Investigating, Kirk and crew are drawn to a solar system where the main planet is dead, ravaged by a nuclear war that took place 900 years ago.
The signal, though, is coming from the world's moon. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, wearing those neat thruster suits you saw in ST:TMP, head down to the surface of the moon. There, they find a crashed, pre-warp vessel. And, outside the vessel? Footprints!
Following the prints, they are surprised when a moon vehicle breaks towards them from the horizon. As it approaches, it fires a burst of energy that paralyzes the three Starfleet officers. Then, these Dr. Octopus-like flexible arms appear from the machine, gather the three men up, like specimens, and carry them across the moon...to a rock...that opens, showing a ramp leading down into the moon.
The Enterprise men are conscious. They just can't move. And, Spock now realizes why the gravity on the moon was so low for its size. The moon is hollow.
There's a scene that cracks me up. The machine puts Kirk and crew in these box units that they realize are hypersleep chambers. Specimen chambers. There is a soporific hum that, as Spock thinks, "This vibration...like slow detal waves, inducing sleep...by altering the electrical period of the cortical neurons..."
One frame shows Kirk, fighting, and losing, the battle to stay away. The next frame shows Spock, in his Spartan way, using his Vulcan mind disclipline to fight the effect. Then, in the next frame, we see McCoy, sleeping like a baby.
That just cracks me up.
Anyway, the Enterprise locates and beams up the three of them plus two others in adjacent hypersleep pods. It turns out, the little aliens are from the planet below. They left just before the extinction event, trying to find an answer to save their world. And, they think the Enterprise crew are...gods. They worship their moon.
As it turns out, the moon was constructed by some alien race (V'Ger anyone? Nomad anyone? The Doomsday Machine, anyone?) that seeded this part of the galaxy then used these artificial moons to monitor their creations. Once the species developed the technology to reach the moon, the moon would leave the world and return to the Seeders with a sample of the more evolved planted race.
The big climax to the story is the Enterprise, locked in a powerful tractor beam from the moon, as the moon/robot/vessel attempts to recover the aliens.
But...the aliens want to return to the moon. They worship the thing. They want to go meet their gods--those that created them.
So, Kirk lets them go, and the Enterprise gets free.
Neat story, eh? Very Star Trek-y? I think so.
Trek, at its best, deals with BIG ISSUES and MIND PROVOKING IDEAS.
I thought this tale worked well along those lines. I really enjoyed reading it.
There's a gamer's angle to this post, too. Because, I was thinking...as I have before. Comics are not just something to read--they're also an outline for role-playing scenarios!
Tell me that you couldn't pull out one of the various Star Trek rule sets (I'm partial to the old FASA set of rules) and use the story above that I just related to make for an interesting, very "Star Trek", adventure to use for your group. You could! Everything you need is there except for the mechanics. Throw in your game system of choice, and viola! You've got a game!
If any of this sounds interesting to you, try picking up the new Star Trek hard back that I link above. It's damn good reading, if you like Trek...and you've got the side option of using it as a gaming supplement!
This is the Water Bob, signing off.
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
I hadn't picked up a comic since I was in junior high school. One of my greatest friends (I've known him since sixth grade), has always been into comics. He tried to get me into The Watchmen, Sin City, and The Dark Knight back in the 80's and 90's, long, long before any of them were movies.
Due to my love of Conan The Barbarian, I picked up my first comic in my adult life, and to my utter surprise...I liked it.
On this day, I'm still not what I would call a comicbook reader. I don't run down to the local comics dealer and spend $200 bucks on single issues. I don't follow super heroes. In fact, my taste is eclectic and a bit nostalgic. I like collections, trades, and omnibuses. I don't want to spend a lot. And, I follow a few narrow interests: I like original Star Trek, James Bond, original trilogy Star Wars, Flash Gordon, and all things having to do with the Hyborian or Thurian Ages: Conan, Red Sonja, Kull.
There's a few other things I've looked at (Criminal and Sgt. Rock comes to mind), but that's just me dabbling here and there to see if anything suits my peculiar taste.
Really, though, this is all just a long winded way of saying: If you've ever been tempted to try comics, then you should. I really get an enjoyment out of the few that I read. For me, my enjoyment is closer to what I get out of a good movie or televison program rather than a good book. The frames and illustrations are like story-boards. I can picture the action inside my head--hear the sounds. When I read the comic adaptation of Howard's Tower of the Elephant, I was there with Conan, high above the Zamorian city. It was dark. There was a slight breeze. I could hear my sandals grate on the grit of the side of the tower as I strained to pull myself up the side, grasping that strange rope woven from women's hair. Then, at the top, when that big, hairy spider jumped us...all I can remember now, is the smell.
For me, reading comics...the right comics....the ones that interest me--it's a fantastic experience. I let my imagination run with it.
So...what has this to do with Star Trek or Gaming?
Well, I'm gonna tell ye.
I recently picked the first of a two volume set: Star Trek The Newspaper Strip Vol. 1. Now, I know what you're thinking. Newspaper strips? Even from the point of view of those who regularly read comics, newspaper strips aren't known for their art or their depth.
But, I gotta tell ya. If you like Star Trek, especially old Star Trek, you'll love this book. It picks up right after the 1979 film, Star Trek The Motion Picture, and the strip is supposed to be Kirk's second five year mission before the events of Wrath of Khan take place.
Kirk remains a captain, and the entire crew is there...and the stories! Even I wasn't expecting the quality of stories I've read so far (I've read the first two of ten stories presented in this vol).
Tell me if this doesn't sound like a good Trek episode to you--
(This is an outline of the first story in the book...).
The Enterprise picks up an old style radio message. All it says is, "Come." Investigating, Kirk and crew are drawn to a solar system where the main planet is dead, ravaged by a nuclear war that took place 900 years ago.
The signal, though, is coming from the world's moon. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, wearing those neat thruster suits you saw in ST:TMP, head down to the surface of the moon. There, they find a crashed, pre-warp vessel. And, outside the vessel? Footprints!
Following the prints, they are surprised when a moon vehicle breaks towards them from the horizon. As it approaches, it fires a burst of energy that paralyzes the three Starfleet officers. Then, these Dr. Octopus-like flexible arms appear from the machine, gather the three men up, like specimens, and carry them across the moon...to a rock...that opens, showing a ramp leading down into the moon.
The Enterprise men are conscious. They just can't move. And, Spock now realizes why the gravity on the moon was so low for its size. The moon is hollow.
There's a scene that cracks me up. The machine puts Kirk and crew in these box units that they realize are hypersleep chambers. Specimen chambers. There is a soporific hum that, as Spock thinks, "This vibration...like slow detal waves, inducing sleep...by altering the electrical period of the cortical neurons..."
One frame shows Kirk, fighting, and losing, the battle to stay away. The next frame shows Spock, in his Spartan way, using his Vulcan mind disclipline to fight the effect. Then, in the next frame, we see McCoy, sleeping like a baby.
That just cracks me up.
Anyway, the Enterprise locates and beams up the three of them plus two others in adjacent hypersleep pods. It turns out, the little aliens are from the planet below. They left just before the extinction event, trying to find an answer to save their world. And, they think the Enterprise crew are...gods. They worship their moon.
As it turns out, the moon was constructed by some alien race (V'Ger anyone? Nomad anyone? The Doomsday Machine, anyone?) that seeded this part of the galaxy then used these artificial moons to monitor their creations. Once the species developed the technology to reach the moon, the moon would leave the world and return to the Seeders with a sample of the more evolved planted race.
The big climax to the story is the Enterprise, locked in a powerful tractor beam from the moon, as the moon/robot/vessel attempts to recover the aliens.
But...the aliens want to return to the moon. They worship the thing. They want to go meet their gods--those that created them.
So, Kirk lets them go, and the Enterprise gets free.
Neat story, eh? Very Star Trek-y? I think so.
Trek, at its best, deals with BIG ISSUES and MIND PROVOKING IDEAS.
I thought this tale worked well along those lines. I really enjoyed reading it.
There's a gamer's angle to this post, too. Because, I was thinking...as I have before. Comics are not just something to read--they're also an outline for role-playing scenarios!
Tell me that you couldn't pull out one of the various Star Trek rule sets (I'm partial to the old FASA set of rules) and use the story above that I just related to make for an interesting, very "Star Trek", adventure to use for your group. You could! Everything you need is there except for the mechanics. Throw in your game system of choice, and viola! You've got a game!
If any of this sounds interesting to you, try picking up the new Star Trek hard back that I link above. It's damn good reading, if you like Trek...and you've got the side option of using it as a gaming supplement!
This is the Water Bob, signing off.
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
