Like Gene Roddenberry, Walter Matt Jefferies was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and flew as a co-pilot and engineer in B-17s. Also like Roddenberry, he was a legitimate war hero. He earned the Air Medal and the Bronze Star for his service. In civilian life, he became an aviation illustrator. His role as an illustrator eventually lead him to Hollywood…and then to Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry hired Jefferies to do one thing: design a space ship for his new show. He had very limited guidance from Gene: No flames, no fins and no rockets. With those…
Month: May 2017
The Star Trek Concordance is a reference book published in 1976 by Ballantine Books. It was written by Bjo Trimble who had already made a name for herself in fandom circles. She was instrumental in the letter writing campaign that brought Star Trek back for its third season. The Concordance started its life as a collection of note cards made by Dorothy Heydt and Bjo. The two grew it into an early fanzine with multiple editions for each season. But with the growing popularity of the Original and Animated Series, Ballantine became interested in releasingThe Concordance as a full edition. This book is…
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing. It was also known as Whitman Comics. The company began operating in 1962 and published a wide variety of comic book adaptions through 1984. Gold Key obtained the rights to print Star Trek in 1967 and continued the run until it was awarded to marvel in 1978. These books are often overlooked or forgotten. But they were part of the Star Trek story in the 1970s. While they carried the show’s name and included its characters, these comic adventures had very little to do with the episodes we watched in syndication in the…