Four Day Geekend: Star Trek Lives!

It's Saturday morning, and I'm off to the wilds of Scarborough in order to spend some time with my friend Colin - AKA Cloin, the pretty Campbell brother.*

He picks me up at the subway, I get a tour of the new apartment and a cup of tea (served in a Star Trek mug, which turns out to be exactly on theme), we socialize for a bit, and then we head for the Pickering Flea Market along with his charming partner Jennifer, in bold defiance of the blizzard that is sweeping across the GTA.

The greater part of the Pickering Flea Market doesn't hold a lot of interest for me in terms of actual buying rather than browsing - you have to really want a cheap pet hair vacuum cleaner or affordable broadsword (both of which are available) if you're going to have to fly it across Canada to get it home.  There are other stalls that offer more manageable items, such as wallets and Blu-ray discs, but I'm really just looking rather than looking to buy.

However, one end of the cavernous warehouse space houses the Antiques and Collectibles section, which is of somewhat more interest to me.  The last time we were here, I unexpectedly discovered some vintage 1950s science fiction magazines,  so I'm curious to see what hidden treasures I might find this time.

The selection of items is certainly comprehensive:  furniture, books, albums, hardware, lamps, paintings, prints, photos, wall sconces, statuettes, and anything else that might be of interest to a collector.  (And, of course, miniature bagpipes - this is the kind of thing that you find when you shop with a guy named Campbell.)

However, other than a comic book or two, nothing really catches my eye until we pass down a row of locked glass cabinets, one of which contains a selection of Star Trek convention programmes and souvenir photo books from the 70s.

The eight pieces, covering the years from 1973 to 1976, are affordably (and surprisingly) priced at $5.00 each, so I clean out the shelf. The staff member who unlocked the cabinet cheerfully attempts to upsell me by suggesting a few of the other Star Trek items in the cabinet, but discretion is the better part of valour:  I'm far more likely to get the programmes home in one piece than a boxed Star Trek Fan Kit.

In the fullness of time, after a harrowing drive through the blowing snow and a satisfying Italian dinner, I'm back at the hotel and can take a look at my new acquisitions, which turn out to be a fascinating window into the early years of Star Trek fandom.

Those early fans are a testament to perseverance.  The original series ended in 1969 after only three seasons, and the animated series managed just two seasons and 22 episodes from 1973 to 1974.  This is long before home computers are a factor, let alone the internet, so the fans relied on newsletters, amateur fan-made magazines (aka fanzines), local clubs, and, of course, conventions, in order to maintain the Star Trek connection.

Although these programmes represent the very early days of Star Trek conventions, it's obvious that they're already viewed as significant events, attracting a wide range of guests in addition to those from the show itself.

As an example, the schedule for the first day of the 1976 convention features some heavy hitters from the world of science fiction: authors Hal Clement, Gordon R. Dickson, Ben Bova, and Harry Harrison, along with legendary illustrator Kelly Freas, and Gemini/Apollo astronaut James McDivvit - not to mention "What is Science Fiction?", a seminar featuring Harlan Ellison and science fiction legend Isaac Asimov which I would certainly have paid good money to attend.

In addition to schedules of convention events and so on, the books are predominantly composed of black and white promo photos - again, it's before the internet, so fans looking for pictures from the show would have been very pleased to receive 15 or 20 good quality prints from the show.  (That being said, I envision people taking these programs home after the convention ends and then carefully and thoughtfully cutting them up into individual pages, which, as somewhat of a collector, makes me wince a little.)

The programs also feature a Star Trek parody comic, Star Truckin, which I'm astonished to see was created and drawn in part by Matt Howarth, who went on to a noteworthy career as a prolific and successful underground indie comics creator and illustrator.

It's interesting to note that he's already collaborating with fellow artists Tony Sciarra, Mark Kernes and W. E. Rittenhouse, who would assist in the creation of Changes, Howarth's exceptional graphic novel that was serialized in Heavy Metal magazine in the 1980s - my first introduction to his work.  In fact, the comic in the 1975 program features characters who appear to be the original (if unnamed) versions of Ron and Russ Post, the distinctive primary characters from Changes, who went on to star in their own comic book, Those Annoying Post Brothers.**

All in all, I consider this to be a bit of a score in terms of value for money, although now, I'm wondering how much programs from the very first Star Trek convention in 1972 would cost.  Well, who knows, maybe the next time I'm in Pickering...

- Sid

*With no offense to Ralph, after all, someone had to be the smart one, although to be honest, when you're talking about the Campbell Brothers, the ideas of "pretty" and "smart" are really just relative to each other, rather than any sort of universally held standard for either concept. 

** I realize that most people will read this and shrug, but trust me, from a fan perspective, this is amazing deep dive forensic background stuff.  Interestingly, I can't find anything online that indicates Matt Howarth's age, I was trying to determine how old he would have been when he was doing Star Trek fan comics.