Gold Key Comics - TOS #1-20

#1 1967 "The Planet of No Return"
Kirk and crew must save Rand from a planet where plants are alpha. Man-eating trees  are not something that Star Trek has really ever done, so I very much enjoyed the originality. This will be the third time I was traumatized by a tree, the other two being; after watching the Wizard of Oz and that time that a giant Spruce was my camp counselor...

#12 1971 "The Flight of the Buccaneer"

Great cover art and a fun story line. Kirk, Bones, Spock and Scotty go undercover  to infiltrate space pirates. Although, why future pirates still look and talk like it's the 17th century I have no idea. Also, they fly a giant wooden Pirate ship??? My favorite part is when Kirk uses his undercover Pirate name .... Kirk. Anyway, loved it.

#13 1972 "The Dark Traveler"

The greatness to this lies in the Dark Traveler. I like when a new character actually stands out. The Dark Traveler is an intergalactic hitchhiker, in a dark robe, looks like Conrad Bain, is very laid back and has Q-like powers.

#15 1972 "Museum at the End of Time"

The Enterprise ends up trapped in The Curator's museum. The Curator is rather similar to The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy. In this story, the Enterprise crew must work together with a Klingon crew in order to escape. Previously in these comics, the Klingon's had looked like Telly Savalas (bald, white dudes). Now finally they have a real looking Klingon (be it in the TOS style).

#16 1972 "Day of Inquisitors"

The Galileo crashes on a planet that is still in the Dark Ages. They are currently in the midst of a religious inquisition. I always enjoy when Star Trek does Dark Age plots. As an added bonus, Spock gets whipped in this one, ...it's very erotic...

Gold Key 1967-1979 (61 Issues) - TOS

Gold Key produced the first Star Trek Comics in 1967 (after issue 20 they mostly switch over to Whitman Comics). The first few covers contain still-photos mixed with some artistic rendering. Eventually they ditch the photos. Either way, both versions are beautifully done. The cover art later on (mostly by George Wilson) is amazing, as is the interior art (mostly by Alberto Giolitti). The depictions of the crew members are about as spot on as it gets.

The first handful of these comics were made mostly by Italians who had never even seen the show. Because of this, there are many inconsistencies and these comics are generally considered non-canon. Some problems are; wrong uniform colors, Spock is too human, Scotty looks Aryan, they say stuff like - "up the periscope", "fire ray guns" and "teleportation chamber". Kirk talks like Robin from the old Batman show, using phrases like "Galloping Galaxies!" The Enterprise brings heavy machinery down to planets, like dump truck and excavators?? In one comic, a crewman unleashes evil ghosts by accidentally opening the wrong door while searching for toilet paper?!?!

Despite all of this... these comics are great. The art is wonderful and writing (Len Wein, Arnold Drake etc) is creative and engaging. My plan is to read these comics in groups of 20 and then select my top 5.