Cover updates

Just a couple of days ago Simon and Schuster put up the first covers for several 2012 books on their online catalogue, and now they have already updated two of those covers:

The Rings of Time:

That Which Divides:

Some fo the authors have also been commenting on the new covers. Dayton Ward on (the first version) of That Which Divides:

I know it’s not the final cover is because I saw this image a couple of weeks ago, and was asked for my input. I provided feedback based on info from the actual manuscript, which the cover artist didn’t have at the time he created this interim image. He was working from some pretty basic info provided to him by my editor, and given what he had to work with, this is actually a pretty slick image. My feedback was aimed more at tweaking the image to bring it in line with the events from the manuscript this is supposed to depict, and to “juice it up” some. I’m still waiting (and excited) to see what he brings with the next go-around.

Christopher L. Bennett on Forgotten History:

Granted this is a tentative cover, but I like the continuity with the Watching the Clock cover, the reuse of the Shepherd’s Gate Clock face from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich as a design element. Having Kirk’s Enterprise fly through it is a great touch. And looming above it all, the face of James T. Kirk, the bogeyman of the DTI… it’s an excellent design, really fitting for the book.

David Mack was also keen to lavish praise on Doug Drexler for his work on the cover of Storming Heaven:

Is that sweet or what? CGI master Doug Drexler has outdone himself again, and I’m in his debt. Want to be even more impressed? I’m told this might not even be the final cover. That’s right; the final cover might be even more awesome than this.

Eye captain!

As part of the Klingon academy uniform option recently added to the Star Trek Online Cryptic Store you can now have characters with eye-patches:

The rest of the uniform also includes and "optional loincloth"!

For hundreds of years, candidates have reported to the mountain fortress of the Klingon Defense Force to learn the ways of the warrior. While there, the cadets wear uniforms designed for utility and strength that can take the punishment of long days of training and nights spent studying the tactics of the Dahar masters. This costume accessory pack includes a chest piece, shoulder pads, boots, gauntlets and a belt with optional loincloth. 

 

New novel covers and blurbs

The Simon and Schuster online catalogue has been updated with a load of new (not final) covers, plus the odd blurb:

The Rings of Time

That Which Divides

The Xondaii system—located in an area of non-aligned space near Federation and Romulan territory—is home to a unique stellar phenomenon: a spatial rift which opens every 2.7 Earth years, remains open for a period of approximately twenty-one Earth days, and allows access to a small planetoid that orbits in proximity to the system’s fourth planet. During this brief window, the people of Xondaii undertake a massive interplanetary operation: mineral ore is ferried from the mining operation while supplies, crew replacements, and so on are transported from the planet. Also, communications with the mining colony on the planetoid are possible only when the rift is open.

Science vessel U.S.S. Robert Ballard is severely damaged during its mission to the system, and the U.S.S. Enterprise is dispatched to investigate and render assistance. But Kirk, Spock, and Sulu also collect the data about the rift, and the evidence they’ve gathered regarding its artificial nature is compelling. How has this not been discovered by anyone from Xondaii, especially when considering the extensive mining operations that have been in place for decades? And what can prevent enemies of the Federation from exploiting this newfound power?

Storming Heaven

Forgotten History

I'm guessing the The Rings of Time cover is just a sketch of what's to come, but I'm loving impressionistic style. And have you ever seen so many Tholians! Links to previous coverage of these books and others coming out in 2012, can be found on the 2012 schedule page.

The Struggle Within cover

The Simon and Schuster website has been updated with the cover for the forthcoming Typhon Pact e-novella, The Struggle Within, by Christopher L. Bennett. Looks like this:

I'm a little disappointed the opportunity wasn't taken to show us one of the new TNG book-only characters. On the plus side, I at least have no listings without covers on the 2011 schedule now, yay!

Mondo: The Motion Picture

StarTrek.com has previewed Mondo's latest Star Trek print, this time based on The Motion Picture (and a stunner!). As ever this will be available online at a random time, tomorrow (Friday, Augst 26th), with an edition of 320 this time. Keep an eye on Mondo's twitter page if you want one!

UPDATE: Well they are all sold out now, there was also a varient edition (of 165), without all the titles (from Mondo):

Klingon Monopoly behind-the-scenes videos, including new house and hotel pieces

USAopoly's Klingon Monopoly website has been updated with four new videos. Two show the sculpting of tokens in the game; the Bird-of-Prey and Bat'leth. The other two show the new house and hotel custom pieces; based on Boreth Monestary and the High Council building I believe. One of the few criticisms I had for their earlier Continuum Edition, was use of generic houses and hotels in that version, so I'm glad to see they've gone all out this time.

Latest Dynomighty wallets

It looks like Dynomighty Design have released another batch of Star Trek Might Wallets (Amazon have some new ones listed at least). This latest trio consists of two new Gold Key Comics based designs:

 

Plus this nifty one based on the communicator (I can just imagine doing the noise as I flip it open to get a card out):

 

Not quite topped their first Haynes Manual Enterprise or shuttlecraft cutaway ones yet though, I think:

Latest Joe Corroney ongoing cover

Joe Corroney has posted another cover sketch up on his Facebook page, for a forthcoming issue of IDW's ongoing comic series:

Loving the carnivorous plants!

New Trek T's

StarTrek.com has been good enough to point out Mighty Fine's latest batch of Star Trek T-shirts, characters designed by Arty Perez in the style of Patrick Nagel. They also have an interview up with Perez about the designs, here.

 

 

Far cooler I feel though, are these two T-shirts form Hot Topic, CROOOM, and SHWAM SHWAM, with comic book style Trek-art (are they from actual Trek comics, can anyone identify the panels?):

 

UPDATE: One of my readers has indeed identified the art; they are from the third issues of DC's first and second TOS series, here are the original pages:

Seeing that it's rather evident that they had to modify the shwam art; replacing the Enterprise's nacelles completely with a new design, and extending the Bird-of-Prey's wing (though not editing out the starscape or original position of the cannon oddly).

STO Rhode Island class refit

The Star Trek Online Cryptic Store has been updated with a listing for the Rhode Island class refit, they describe it's unique features as follows:

The original Nova class first entered service in the late 24th century as a science and scout vessel. The ship was refitted in the early 25th century with a new look and updated technology.

The first of the Science Vessel Refits was the U.S.S. Rhode Island, commanded by Captain Harry Kim. Science Vessel Refits come standard with a Photonic Displacer Module. This console module can be used to generate a photonic duplicate while masking the ship's energy signature -- a perfect decoy. The Photonic Displacer Module can be equipped on any Science Vessel in any console slot.

 

IDW November solicitations

IDW have released their solicitations for November, which include two new Star Trek titles, plus an omnibus:

Star Trek (ongoing) #3
By Mike Johnson, with art by Stephen Molnar. Covers by Tim Bradstreet (4/5) and Joe Corroney (1/5), plus retail incentive Bradstreet sketch cover and a photo-cover.

The adventures of the new Enterprise crew continue in this re-imagining of the classic episode "The Galileo 7"! Mr. Spock finds himself in command of a stranded shuttle crew fighting for survival, in a tale featuring the new cast from the blockbuster STAR TREK film!

Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #2
By Chris Roberson, with art by Jeffrey Moy and Philip Moy. Covers by Phil Jimenez (4/5) and Steve Lightle (1/5), plus a retail incentive cover by Gabriel Rodriguez

The epic IDW/DC Comics crossover continues. Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise have returned to Earth, but discover that it isn't the Earth they remember. And a group of Legionnaires stranded in the 23rd century find that history has changed around them. But can either team uncover what's gone wrong in time? And what will happen when they encounter each other?

Star Trek 100-Page Spectacular
By John Byrne, Scott and David Tipton, and Stuart Moore, with art by John Byrne, David Messina, Federica Manfredi, Mike Hawthorne. Cover by Joe Corroney

A quartet of stories offer an exciting—and reasonably priced!—introduction to the IDW universe of Star Trek. The first three are stand-alone stories, while the fourth, Spock Reflections, is the first chapter (but one that works well on its own) of a larger series.

The Stuart Moore and Mike Hawthorne credits can only indicate the inclusion of Alien Spotlight: Tribbles. With Spock: Reflections #1, that leaves two slots, but with Byrne, the Tiptons and Messina having done so many Trek comics for IDW they could be just about anything!

Klingon Monopoly tokens revealed

The Klingon Monopoly website has been updated, with an image showing off the final design of the six fan-voted game tokens:

They have also revealed further details of the game's release; there will two editions:

1,701 Limited Edition versions of the game will be created! Each will be individually numbered, bilingual, and include a one-of-a-kind mini replica of the Chancellor’s Cane. In addition, a Collector’s Edition will be available, less the Cane and will not be numbered.

Cross the Final Frontier with Joe Corroney

Joe Corroney has posted a rough sketch of a forthcoming cover for IDW's ongoing Star Trek series on his Facebook page. It's another retro poster style piece, and looks like this:

Cross Cult to publish Double Helix, and other Cross Cult news

2002 English omnibus

Cross Cult has announced it plans to publish German translations of the 1999 crossover series Double Helix, with their version of the six book series starting in February next year. The scheduling falls in line with their release of New Frontier books, as the fifth book in the miniseries will also be the sixth of their New Frontier ones, following on from their latest, Gebranntes Kind (Once Burned).

UPDATE: My German correspondent, Jens Deffner (of Unreality SF), as informed me of some other Cross Cult news:

The Double Helix release will (thankfully!) feature new cover art

Cross Cult have announced they will be slowing down their releases, as the sales have not be able to support the current output. There will now be one novel a month (with possible occasional exceptions). This has affected the schedule: Feuertaufe: McCoy - Die Herkunft der Schatten (Crucible: McCoy - Provenance of Shadows) has been pushed back to October, rather than being released alongside this month's McCoy (Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor) comic release. The next Vanguard book, What Judgments Come, also will no longer be released simultaneously with the US publication, and has for the moment been removed from the schedule all together; but will apparently be released in a timely manner.

New cover artwork for Cross Cult's editions of the Starfleet Academy books was rejected; on the grounds it was too realistic:

The Cross Cult Star Trek website is currently using the original American covers, which I do prefer the more painterly covers of, but it’s a shame they don’t have the additions of the Star Trek title and author name on the cover proposed on the above image.

And finally, the first book in the Destiny trilogy Götter der Nacht (Gods of Night) has done well enough to warrant a second printing!

Infinite Space's Rewbe'yoh class

The Star Trek: Infinite Space website has regularly been updating with new ships added to its interactive ship of the week feature. Until recently they've all been previously established designed, but last week's ship was a something original to forthcoming online game, the Klingon Rewbe’yoh class, which looks like this:

You can go and spin round the 3D model all you please on the Infinite Space website.

This week's ship of the week is the very familiar Intrepid class, which io9 also has a feature on, check out their video and images, here.

Joe Corroney's cover for Star Trek (ongoing) #2

Joe Corroney has released his cover art for the second issue of IDW's forthcoming ongoing series:

According to TrekMovie, Joe Corroney worked on this as his version of a Starfleet recruitment poster, and it doesn't particularly relate to anything in the comic itself.

I really like this different style from Corroney, especially the blue girl...

Tell your own Star Trek story with magnets

ThinkGeek have launched a new Star Trek magnetic storyboard. It's double-sided, featuring the TOS bridge or the planet from Arena, and comes with five characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Kor, and a Gorn) plus eight accessories. Fun!

UPDATE: This appears to be made by Ata-Boy, which make many Star Trek products (though this is the most fun). This set was first released in 1997, according to Zach Trek, and has recently been repackaged.

I think the next best Trek products from Ata-Boy must be their range of badges:

Star Trek Magazine: The Ultimate Guide

StarTrek.com has posted an interview with the Star Trek Magazine's editor, Paul Simpson, in which he discusses The Ultimate Guide; the magazine's two part special to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Star Trek. Here's how he summarised the specials:

One of the things that I’ve felt is missing from the printed Trek universe is a full guide to the shows. Paula [M. Block] and Terry [J. Erdmann]’s Star Trek 101 did finally give us something that covered Enterprise, but what wasn’t there was a complete list, in broadcast order, with writers, directors and date of release…  It started from there, and I realized that it needed a personal touch as well to make it interesting for the reader. I therefore came up with the idea of giving 4 pages per season – usually; there’s the odd exception -- which would include all that factual detail, plus a mark per episode… and then the subjective stuff on top. A brief essay about the season; the author’s top 5 episodes, with a reason why; the worst episode; the best guest star… and then, from a brilliant suggestion by Marco Palmieri, the MVP, most valued performer, for each season.

The absolute minimum any episode gets is title, writer, director, airdate and a mark out of 5, but the vast majority get a lot more than that. The production overviews are, deliberately, subjective: what I might have picked out from that season’s history isn’t necessarily at all what the writers have. And it’s very important to note that no one has been asked to change what they said: it means that occasionally we have the same person awarded the MVP in successive seasons, or that what one person suggests in their piece will be a fantastic year of a show is revealed in the next article to be one of the less successful ones, in the next author’s opinion. 

The issue is already up on Zinio, which hosts the online version of the magazine. Here's an example of the guide format, the first TAS page:

Enterprise DVDs complete the set

Amazon.co.uk has updated it's listing for the forthcoming re-release of the complete Star Trek: Enterprise DVD set with the new box art:

And thus the least-shelf-space-consuming-ever releases of Star Trek on DVD are complete. Although The Animated Series was omitted from the re-release it seems it did get a slimmer release back in 2009, in a standard DVD case, rather than the huge plastic thing from 2006:

Now we just need TAS and Enterprise out on bluray, and TNG remastered eventually too!

The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm cover

Simon and Schuster has updated its listings for the next Enterprise novel, The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm, with this new cover (look at all those ships!): UPDATE: High resolution version, thanks to JWolf on the TrekBBS:

A little more on Infestation 2

Comics Continuum have posted a video with IDW's Tom Waltz in which he briefly discusses Infestation 2, which is planned to start in January 2012. As previously reported, this time there will be more direct crossovers, plus there will be more franchises involved, as well as a new bad guy.

According to Newsarama's coverage of IDW "Greatest Panel Ever" at the San Diego Comic Con, IDW showed artwork from the series, featuring Transformers and G.I. Joe, plus new additions Danger Girl and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. This report also gives a title of "Infes2ation".

Comics Alliance meanwhile, reports the sequel series will have all the original Infestation series (Covert Vampiric Operations, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe and Transformers). Plus the aforementioned new licenses Danger Girl and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, aas well as Weekly World News and Groom Lake - The latter of which has already been tied into the Infestation: Outbreak sequel, which started this summer.