Comic-Con News:  At the San Diego Comic-Con IDW Publishing announced the December debut of a new Star Fleet Academy miniseries that will be written by Ryan Parrott and Mike Johnson with art by Derek Charm.  In addition IDW announced the milestone issue #50 of its flagship Star Trek comic, which is due out in October and is written by Johnson and drawn by Tony Shasteen. 

IDW is planning its Star Fleet Academy series, which will use youthful likenesses of the current Star Trek crew, as an “entry point” for young readers by detailing the hijinks and academic activities of Kirk, Spock and Uhuru.  The saga is set in the years just prior to the events in 2009 J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film that rebooted the franchise with a dynamic young cast that included Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg.  With the third movie in the rebooted series, Star Trek: Beyond now in production and stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto signed for a fourth film (see “First ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Image”), it does not appear that this franchise is going to fade away any time soon.  Incidentally, this isn’t the first Star Fleet Academy series.  Marvel published a Star Fleet Academy from 1996-1998 that lasted for 19 issues.

The cast of the latest movie iteration of Star Trek are all featured in IDW’s flagship Star Trek comic series, which IDW refers to “as one of the longest-running Star Trek comic book series by any publisher” (well, yes, though the original Gold Key series went 61 issues, and DC had two Star Trek series with 56 issues and 80 issues respectively as well as a Star Trek: The Next Generation comic that went for 80).  IDW’s Star Trek #50 introduces the “Mirror, Mirror” storyline from The Original Series in a 3-part saga that will bring some of the old school high concept TV space opera elements to the world of the IDW comic that has generally taken its look and narrative cues from the new rebooted Star Trek film series.