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This series of comic strips ran from 2nd December 1979 until 3rd December 1983. 20 stories comprising 1,406 daily strips were published over those four years. The first 14 stories were published seven days of the week with the Sunday strips being in colour and the reminder in black-and-white. Stories 15-20 were only published from Mondays to Saturdays and all are in black-and-white. These were published in a range of US newspapers in at least 21 states, and also in Canada, the UK and Argentina. There were also a series of audition strips reprinted in the IDW Newspaper Strips volumes 1 and 2. I will add further details of these at a later date, as well as more sample strip images. All of these strips were collected in a two volume set of books, 'Star Trek: The Newspaper Comics', published by IDW Publishing between in December 2012 and October 2013 respectively.
A fascinating account of the missing Sunday panels can be found at startrekcomics.info.
The following paragraph and the short story synopses are reproduced courtesy of Rich Handley.
Most stories were published without titles, though #3, 7-10, 17 and 19 did have titles printed. The titles to #1, 2 and 4-6 were provided by Rosemary Warkentin from her husband's scripts. The title to #12 was revealed in Larry Niven's "Playgrounds of the Mind", which discussed the storyline's history. According to that book, Niven and DiVono considered penning a novelization featuring the ending originally planned before Ron Harris quit the strip, but it never materialized. The titles of the remaining seven tales (#11, 13-16, 18 and 20) have been lost to time, so Rich Handley chose new titles for IDW's reprint books while writing an introduction and lexicon for the set.
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Story 1 - "Called Home"
Aliens asleep for nine centuries awaken to discover that their world has been devastated by nuclear war. |
42 Strips Published Between:
2 December 1979 and 12 January 1980
Writer: Thomas Warkentin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 2 - "Dilithium Dilemma"
Klingons attack Enterprise to compete for a depleted dilithium mine after both ships run out of the vital mineral |
56 Strips Published Between:
13 January 1980 and 8 March 1980
Writer: Thomas Warkentin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 3 - "The Real McCoy"
Anton Zuber, aided by McCoy's ex-wife, alters his apperance to replace Bones and steal his medical patents
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56 Strips Published Between:
9 March 1980 and 3 May 1980
Writer: Thomas Warkentin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 4 - "Double Bluff"
Kirk grants asylum to Morg and Chetar, renegade Klingons facing execution for criticizing their government |
56 Strips Published Between:
4 May 1980 and 28 June 1980
Writers: Thomas Warkentin, Tom Durkin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 5 - "Aberration on Abaris"
The Hoffs find a 5,000-year old carving of Enterprise on Abaris, home to a pre-cognitive race of mushroom people |
70 Strips Published Between:
29 June 1980 and 6 September 1980
Writer: Thomas Warkentin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 6 - "Husian Gambit"
Rebels on Hus-24 enslave the Enterprise and Venture crews to protest Federation exploitation of their dull world |
133 Strips Published Between:
7 September 1980 and 17 January 1981
Writers: Thomas Warkentin, Tom Durkin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 7 - "Heads of State"
Ordered to find out why Zeta-Atez is leaving the Federation, Kirk learns that its leader, Dykranus, has a big secret |
63 Strips Published Between:
18 January 1981 and 21 March 1981
Writers: Thomas Warkentin, Peter Jacoby
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 8 - "It's a Living"
Journalist Jo Williams travels with the Enterprise crew to Argus IV, a mining world owned by Harry Mudd |
35 Strips Published Between:
22 March 1981 and 25 April 1981
Writer: Thomas Warkentin
Artist: Thomas Warkentin
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Story 9 - "The Savage Within"
Kirk must save a derelict generational ship from deadly neutron star radiation and stop a 300-year clan war |
87 Strips Published Between:
26 April 1981 and 21 July 1981
Writer: Sharman DiVono
Artist: Ron Harris
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Story 10 - "Quarantine"
On the planet Sarsithia, Chapel contracts a plague and becomes dangerously insane, nearly inciting a Klingon war |
98 Strips Published Between:
22 July 1981 and 27 October 1981
Writer: Sharman DiVono
Artist: Ron Harris
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Story 11 - "Restructuring Is Futile"
Kirk finds a Klingon crew cyborged by a machine intelligence called the Omnimind |
124 Strips Published Between:
28 October 1981 and 28 February 1982
Writer: Sharman DiVono
Artist: Ron Harris
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Story 12 - "The Wristwatch Plantation"
Investigating the fate of a Bebebebeque colony on Mimit, the Enterprise faces Kzinti invaders |
139 Strips Published Between:
1 March 1982 and 17 July 1982
Writers: Sharman DiVono, Larry Niven
Artist: Ron Harris
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Story 13 - "The Nogura Regatta"
Kyoshi Nogura plans a starship race to honor his grandfather, Admiral Nogura, but pirates abduct several entrants |
49 Strips Published Between:
18 July 1982 and 4 September 1982
Writer: Sharman DiVono
Artists: Ron Harris, Thomas Warkentin
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Story 14 - "A Merchant's Loyalty"
Merchant fleets from the Deltan 330 Graveyard Sector stage a deadly rivalry to lure the Enterprise into their grasp |
139 Strips Published Between:
5 September 1982 and 30 October 1982
Writer: Padraic Shigetani
Artist: Padraic Shigetani
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Story 15 - "Taking Shape"
The Enterprise crew is replaced by shape-shifters from Manark V, resulting in a showdown with Romulans |
90 Strips Published Between:
1 November 1982 and 12 February 1983
Writer: Martin Pasko
Artist: Padraic Shigetani
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Story 16 - "Send in the Clones"
To end a war with the Sangdor, Kirk receives help from Courier Clones—one of whom Scotty is accused of murdering |
72 Strips Published Between:
14 February 1983 and 7 May 1983
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Bob Myers
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Story 17 - "Goodbye to Spock"
Stranded in the Fortenue System, Spock suffers amnesia and falls in love with a woman from a feudal society |
48 Strips Published Between:
9 May 1983 and 2 July 1983
Writer: Martin Pasko
Artists: Ernie Colón, Serc Soc, Alfredo Alcala |
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Story 18 - "Terminally Yours"
Contracting a plague, McCoy grows paranoid and steals a shuttlecraft so he can die alone |
36 Strips Published Between:
4 July 1983 and 13 August 1983
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Dick Kulpa
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Story 19 - "The Retirement of Admiral Kirk"
Assigned to a desk job, Kirk resigns to pursue privateer work, but discovers he has signed aboard a slave-ship |
54 Strips Published Between:
15 August 1983 and 15 October 1983
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Dick Kulpa
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Story 20 - "Getting Real"
Kirk and company enter a parallel universe in which they are characters on a tv show called Star Trek |
42 Strips Published Between:
17 October 1983 and 3 December 1983
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Dick Kulpa
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