Vintage British Star Trek pages sold on eBay

Two pages of vintage Star Trek art by veteran British comic artist John Stokes created for British publication have just been sold on eBay.

Published in August 1972 in Valiant and TV21, John Stokes was one of several artists to work on the property, which first featured in the weekly comic Joe 90: Top Secret in January 1969, six months before the TV show itself began to air in the UK on BBC1, coinciding with the first moon landing.

Star Trek transferred to TV21 when the two titles merged in September 1969, becoming TV21 and Joe 90.

TV21, a pale shadow of its former 1960s self, was eventually merged with Valiant in late 1971, with Star Trek one of the strips that survived the merger.

Artists who worked on the strip - which proved an instant hit from its first appearance in Joe 90 - included Harry Lindfield, Mike Noble, Ron Turner, Harold Johns, Carlos Pino and Vicente Alcazar and, finally, John Stokes, who drew 13 untitled stories in total.

The strip appeared in colour, his art often falling prey to the vagaries of Valiant's letterpress printing, running until 29 December 1973.

This artwork was part of a huge deal between IPC and collector Peter Hansen and Blase Books, run by Phil Clark, regularly offer items via eBay, sold as from the Peter Hansen Five Star IPC Archive Collection.

While the British Star Trek comic is riddled with continuity errors, especially in early stories where the artists and writers had no idea of the show's format or how its vehicles looked, aside from what we can only assume would have been a few reference photographs, there is still plenty of interest in this curious spin-off from the hit SF franchise, which included one of the first attempts to visualize the Romulan homeworld and a story set on Earth - a setting never realized on the original TV series itself.

Perhaps there may yet be interest in a print collection of the material at some point.

• Written by pop-culture historian Alan J. Porter, author of the bestselling James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007, Star Trek: A Comic Book History, published last year, should be of interest to people interested in the story above, offering a complete history of the Star Trek universe in comic books and newspaper strips all over the world.

It features nine information-packed chapters detailing the history of Star Trek in comic books and newspaper strips from the first Gold Key comic book, the British Star Trek strips to Marvel and DC's titles, and up to the present day. Covering all publications of the entire Star Trek universe it includes creator interviews, unpublished artwork, and a detailed checklist.

In Review: Great Expectations

by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Jen Green
Art: John Stokes
Colourist: Jason Cardy

The tale of Pip, Miss Havisham, and the spiteful Estella, retold with fresh enthusiasm...

No, you haven't been transported to an alternate dimension where downthetubes reviews literary fiction and the entire team smokes clay pipes around a roaring fire and ruminates on the work of John Donne and Charles Dickens. This really is a review of Great Expectations -- the glorious, beautifully realized graphic novel brought to life by the Classical Comics team.

I have to confess that until now, my experience of Great Expectations has been confined to BBC Sunday serials and the 1946 David Lean film. I have read Dickens' Oliver Twist at school and some of his other works, such as Christmas Carol and The Signalman, but in terms of actually getting to grips with the original novels, I've been sadly lax.

I'm pleased to report, then, that John Stokes serves up an interpretation of that "original text", adapted in style by Jen Green, with confident aplomb, delivering page after page of beautiful, detailed and lovingly rendered art, perfectly complementing Dickens' story. Without wanting to detarct from the equally enjoyable work Mike Collins did on Classical Comics version of A Christmas Carol, It makes you wonder just why John seems to have been so absent from British comics for such a long time, such is the quality of what's on offer. His attention to detail, without losing sight of the need for strong storytelling is in evidence throughout, as you'll see from these sample pages.

The story, of course, is a complex mix of mistaken intent, unrequited love and unexpected twists as protagonist Pip discovers almost all those who have shaped his life have some unknown connection or shady past. Again, the art breathes life into the entire cast without resorting to stereotype: Stokes' version of the convict, Magwitch, is as believable as the twisted, heart-broken Miss Havisham.

Throughout, this adaptation delivers a powerful re-telling of Dickens novel, with gorgeous art that aids the storytelling and helps make sense of the many characters and their relationships. I was also delighted to find this version went with Dickens later, alternate ending to the story, which for me sat much better with the story and is not as downbeat as the original.

If you need any further convincing that I enjoyed this edition, I sat down to read the Original Text version and genuinely couldn't put the thing down until I'd read it. For a nineteenth century novel to grab my attention so is no mean feat and its testament to the hard work the Classical Comics team put into the book. They've succeeded in creating a superb re-telling of a classic piece of fiction and, more importantly, given it a whole new dimension through its stunning art that will surely appeal to a wide range of readers.

Outstanding.

• Classical Comics: www.classicalcomics.com

Expecting Great Things from John Stokes

(with thanks to Jon Haward): Classical Comics, the British publisher adapting classic works of fiction into comics for both schools and general readers, has just published some pages form its latest project, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, on its web site.

Adapted by Jen Green, the art for the project is the work of former Marvel UK and IPC artist John Stokes, whose perhaps most memorable credits for downthetubes readers include Black Knight for Hulk Weekly, Fishboy for Buster, Future Shocks for 2000AD, the comic strip adaptation of the film Time Bandits, Doctor Who strips and much more.

Jon Haward, who has been working for Classical Comics as both artist and art director, is delighted with John's work. "I'm really happy for John," he enthuses, "and publisher Clive Bryant, as I think this book has winner stamped all over it."

Stokes' work, coloured by Jason Cardy, brings Dickens' powerful tale of Pip, Miss Havisham, and the spiteful Estella to glorious life, his attention to detail without losing sight of the need for strong storytelling in plenty of evidence from these sample pages.

As a tale described as "one of the greatest works of literary history," John and the Classcial Comics team have certainly done it justice in graphic novel form.

• Great Expectations, which will be available in Original Text and Quicktext formats, will be published in March. Order it from amazon.co.uk

• John Stokes' Profile on Lambiek