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The first Star Trek comics were published by Gold Key between 1967 and 1978. The series had a run of 61 issues. Originally they were illustrated by Alberto Giolitti, an Italian artist who had never seen the series and only had publicity photos to use as references. Since Giolitti didn't have a publicity photo of James Doohan, early issues of the series had Mr. Scott drawn differently. These comics were highly stylized and diverged wildly from the TV series continuity. Nonetheless they are fondly remembered by fans and a series of reprints ("The Key Collection") of these original titles began to appear in 2004, published by Checker, for 5 volumes containing issues #1-40. The original issues, most of which featured photographic covers showing images from the series, are highly collectable. Writers included George Kashdan, Arnold Drake and Len Wein.
Most storylines used in the Gold Key series featured original characters and concepts, although later issues did include sequels to the TOS episodes "The City on the Edge of Forever", "Metamorphosis" and "I, Mudd". Starting with issue 20 all but 9 stories were also released under Whitman Comics. Gold Key lost the license for Star Trek to Marvel in 1979. They had a story for issue 62, but it was never produced.
Starting in 2010, the Gold Key series is available digitally exclusively through Devil's Due Digital. Although in most comics, all the crewmembers (with the exception of Spock) wear green lime uniforms instead of primary colored uniforms.
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