Year Five #15: Vote Mudd preview

This week brings us fifteenth issue(ad) of IDW's TOS comic maxiseries Year Five(ad), which launches a new story arc focused on Harry Mudd's run for Federation president. 

This series was delayed a few months earlier in the year due to Covid, so what might have come a couple of months ago as a warning of political events to come, has instead managed to land right on top of the US presidential elections, with Mudd slipping into Trump's analogous shoes all the more vividly as a result - Although Mudd is decidedly more charming, if also a little menacing, and this is a delightfully playful issue thanks to his long history with Kirk at this point in the timeline. 

Interestingly the image of Mudd is that of Rainn Wilson, as seen in Discovery, no doubt helping to side-step the issues of actor likeness that have long tripped up appearances by the character in previous comics. 

This new story arc is written by Jody Houser, with art by Silvia Califano, and colour from Charlie Kirchoff. The book is offered in two covers, either the main one(ad) by Steve Thompson (also coloured by Kirchoff), or the retail incentive(ad) by JJ Lendl, which this issue take the form of pro-Mudd graffiti - Lendl's covers for the first part of a story arc normally give us the title, so we can probably take that to be Vote Mudd, or maybe Vote Mudd For Federation President. 

Continue below to check out the covers, a five-page preview, and a look at some of the artwork from this issue.

You can continue reading the rest of the book by picking up a copy at your local comic book shop, or from online retailers like these: Amazon(ad), Ebay(ad), Things From Another World(ad), Forbidden Planet(ad). This arc will also be part of the third omnibus in the series, Weaker Than Man(ad), which is due out in May 2021, if you'd rather wait for the collected edition.

Several of the issue artists have shared some of their work from this issue. Silvia Califano tweeted a nice look at her process for page five, as well as a look at her beautiful page one art, and StarTrek.com shared a few more art pages too.

And Steve Thompson shared the cover art without titles, you can also see on Twitter his inks before colours were added.

Thompson also shared some alternate cover concepts, including these playful takes on other historic images:

To keep track of all the latest Star Trek comic releases, hit the comics button on my 2020 or 2021 schedule page, or have a look back through my comics tag for the latest posts. You can also find reading lists for several Star Trek comic series on my Trek Collective Lists site.