Comic panels: Latest from New Visions, City on the Edge of Forever, and more

Some Star Trek comics news for you, starting with the latest updates from John Bryne on his New Visions photo-comic series. Talking on his forums Byrne recently outlined his progress on the series:

So far, with seven stories complete, and an eighth started, I had two direct sequels, one "follow up" that is not strictly a sequel, two returning characters (same story), again not a sequel.

Two of the stories presently in the planning stages contain elements from previous episodes, but are, again, not direct sequels.

He also posted another preview panel, this time using parts of a real world location to expand the possible backdrops for the series:

Here's a little sneak peek at something from the finished lead story for the fourth issue. A combination of modeling and heavily manipulated "location shooting."

The second issue in the series, Time's Echo, is due out in August. Meanwhile IDW's adaptation of Harlan Ellison's original teleplay for City on the Edge of Forever is now underway. Chris Ryall posted the variant cover for the second printing of the first issue, a red version of the Juan Ortiz cover.

Flickring Myth recently posted an interview with the series' writer, Scott Tipton, and artist, J.K. Woodward. Both discussed some of their favourite scenes in the adaptation (Woodward and Tipton respectively here):

Harlan is a very visual writer and he constructs some fantastic visuals in his stories. LeBeque’s hallucination in issue 1, the guardians and their planet, the city itself, Kirk and Spock’s trip through the time vortex are all really fun scenes, but I think the most fun I had was the fight scene in the transporter room that begins issue 2. Wow! what a thrill! and quite time intensive.

There’s a scene coming up in issue 4, I believe, that’s just a conversation between Kirk and Spock that really illustrates the struggle Kirk is going through, It’s some of my favorite writing of Harlan’s and it was cut from the filmed episode, so seeing that on the page will be quite a thrill.

Tipton also talked about an idea for a follow up to the TNG/Doctor Who crossover. Alas IDW don't have the Doctor Who license any more, so it's not as likely to happen now, but we can dream:

...the idea I always wanted to do was a body switch story between Q and The Doctor where Q would find himself trapped in the Doctor’s body and the Doctor was suddenly part of the Q continuum. Q would see the TARDIS, as great a force as it is, as limiting and we could learn a great deal more about what it means to be a Time Lord from that. The Doctor could show us just what it means to be part of the continuum as well, the responsibility, the dangers, the laws(are there any) and the struggle to even comprehend the limitless. I always thought that would be a great character story for both.

Continue after the jump for a look at some of the latest unofficial comics:

I recently came across a Star Trek webcomic being created by Mark Farinas. He is creating an anthology series, based on scripts he devised for a Star Trek animated series. So far he is part way into the second story, Weapons of Mass Destruction, which features Harry Mudd, this follows the first Romulan War era story, No Good Deed. The stories so far have been morality tales, and also determinedly inclusive, with novelties such as gender balanced casts, and gay characters. Here are a few sample panels, you can ready the stories so far on Farinas' site.

Finally, the ever observant Jens Deffner recently pointed me towards a new Star Trek parody comic release in Germany. Matthias Kringe's Spass Trek is out in German now, and according to Jens is "somewhat amusing". Here are a couple of sample strips, you can see more, here (pdf link).