Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing. It was also known as Whitman Comics. The company began operating in 1962 and published a wide variety of comic book adaptions through 1984.
Gold Key obtained the rights to print Star Trek in 1967 and continued the run until it was awarded to marvel in 1978.
These books are often overlooked or forgotten. But they were part of the Star Trek story in the 1970s. While they carried the show's name and included its characters, these comic adventures had very little to do with the episodes we watched in syndication in the 70s.
In fact, reading these stories is often painful. The science is often absent from these supposed science-fiction comics. The plots are outlandish and the characters don't behave as the characters we got to know on TV.
Some will find these comic books charming or nostalgic and that's perfectly OK. As fans of the original Star Trek, we found them difficult to take.
