Star Trek Fotonovels

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Star Trek Fotonovels were a series of twelve softcover pocket photonovel books, produced by Mandala Productions and published by Bantam Books during the years 1977-1978. These books were essentially re-tellings of the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes in question, with word balloons and text being arranged over the stills from the episode in the style of a comic book or graphic novel. Something of a short-term fad, such books were conceived in the days before the advent of home video, most notably VHS, and quickly fell out of fashion thereafter. No specific order was observed, be it production, or broadcast order-wise. Instead, a random selection, stemming from all three seasons of the Original Series was selected for adaptation, resulting in all three seasons being represented in the twelve-issue run of the publication.

Five of the first six titles have seen a reprint run around 1979/1980 (Metamorphosis being the exception) in order to make the most out of the fervor surrounding the premiere of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and were endowed with new ISBNs. It was in conjunction with the event that these first six titles of the Bantam editions also saw translated international releases in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as two in Japan, these two actually featuring a heavy use of imagery from the film on their covers. For Latin-America, a pan-American produced – involving companies located in the USA, Panama and Venezuela – Spanish-language version was released in 1979 of the first seven issues as monthly outings under the "GeoMundo" imprint, and distributed in, among others, the USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Panama. Each of these editions had a price imprint representing the local currency.

A somewhat out-of-the-ordinary release concerned the 1980 Indonesian versions. These editions had their origins in the efforts Dutch comic publishers had undertaken in the late-1970s/early-1980s to introduce their former colony to the phenomenon of the European comic. It is very hard to ascertain how far the publication effort extended due to the low status of comics in Indonesian society (creating imagery of living creatures, including men, is frowned upon in Muslim culture), but an Indonesian release of the eleventh title is known, implying that the Indonesians went farther than the Dutch, who ceased publication after the first six titles – as did the Germans for that matter. Conceivably unlicensed, [1] the Indonesian releases differed from all the others in this respect, that they were executed in black and white instead of full color.

Releases[]

No.	Cover	Title	Year	Publisher	ISBN
1		City on the Edge of Forever	1977	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553113453 ISBN 0553125648 (1979/80 reprint)
		City on the Edge of Forever	1978	Corgi Books (UK)	ISBN 0552106739
		De Stad aan de Rand van Altijd (Dutch)	1978	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		La ciudad en el abismo eterno (Spanish)	1979	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Die Stadt am Rande der Ewigkeit (German)	1979	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71001 – German)	ISBN 3404013972
		Kiken'na kako e no tabi (Japanese)	1980	Tatsumi Mook (Japanese)	n/a
		Gerbang ke masa silam (Indonesian)	1980	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian)	n/a
2		Where No Man Has Gone Before	1977	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553113461 ISBN 0553127268 (1979/80 reprint)
	no image yet	Where No Man Has Gone Before	1978	Corgi Books (UK)	ISBN 0552613479
		Waar geen Mens is eerder is gegaan (Dutch)	1978	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		¡Donde nadie ha ido jamás! (Spanish)	1979	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Vorstoß zur Unsterblichkeit (German)	1979	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71002 – German)	ISBN 340401409X
		Dare mo mae ni ika nakatta basho (Japanese)	1980	Tatsumi Mook (Japanese)	n/a
3		The Trouble with Tribbles	1977	Bantam Books	ISBN 055311347X ISBN 055312689X (1979/80 reprint)
		Problemen met de Dribbels (Dutch)	1978	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		Problemas Con Criaturas Galacticas (Spanish)	1979	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Invasion der Tribbles (German)	1979	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71005 – German)	ISBN 3404014219
4		A Taste of Armageddon	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553113488 ISBN 0553127446 (1979/80 reprint)
		Een Voorproefje van Armageddon (Dutch)	1979	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		Un destello de Armageddon (Spanish)		Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Duell der Planeten (German)		Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71006 – German)	ISBN 3404014227
		Perang antar komputer (Indonesian)	1980	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian)	n/a
5		Metamorphosis	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553113496
		Metamorfose (Dutch)	1979	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		Metamorfosis (Spanish)		Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Das Geschenk der Götter (German)		Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71007 – German)	ISBN 3404014375
6		All Our Yesterdays	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 055311350X ISBN 0553135090 (1979/80 reprint)
		Al onze dagen van Weleer (Dutch)	1979	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch)	n/a
		Todo nuestro ayer (Spanish)	1979	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
		Flucht aus der Vergangenheit (German)	1980	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71008 – German)	ISBN 3404014383
7		The Galileo 7	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553120417
7		El Galileo 7 (Spanish)	1979	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
8		A Piece of the Action	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553120220
9		The Devil in the Dark			ISBN 0553120212
10		Day of the Dove			ISBN 0553120174
11		The Deadly Years			ISBN 055312028X
11		Tahun-Tahun maut (Indonesian)	1980	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian)	n/a
12		Amok Time	1978	Bantam Books	ISBN 0553120123
Boxed set
1		Cardboard slipcase containing the individual titles, City on the Edge of Forever Where No Man Has Gone Before The Trouble with Tribbles A Taste of Armageddon	1978	Bantam Books	n/a

Star Trek Fotonovels

Releases[]

See also[]