Mike Carlin (1) (1958–)

The worst. Launched when the show itself launched. Even if the characters aren't exactly in sync with the show’s iterations, there is really no excuse for writing this bad. And the art. Oh the art. Zero respect for the source material or the audience. Spoiled by auteur “cartoonists,” I forgot that for years and years comics were lowest denominator commercial art marginalia one step above greeting cards. Scorn worthy.

“Great” cover of pure 90s photoshop vomit by the immortal Bill Sienkiewicz though. He probably painted it.… (more)

This graphic novel collects DC's initial six-issue TNG comic series, set during the show's first season. It's clunky in spots, even excusing the fact that Carlin probably had very little of the show to go on while writing; nothing really justifies the Bickleys! It's obvious that Carlin was writing from a series bible in the way he handles the characters: Picard is aloof and constantly mentions how he dislikes having families aboard, Troi uses her "talents" a lot (which apparently include precognition), Data has an internal tricorder and everyone brings up his "adrenal fluids", Yar grew up on "the colony" (this is reiterated on basically every page she's on), Wesley's sneaking onto the bridge, and Geordi... well, he's blind. (All that said, Carlin's Picard is impressively spot-on.) The onboard families are mentioned constantly, and the book even gets in one use of saucer separation. But despite all the oddities, some of the stories (though, not the Christmas one) are actually pretty good, especially the trilogy of Q ones, which anticipate things that the TV show would do with Q by several years. It's also got good parts for Yar and Data as the former confronts some of her past and the latter anguishes over Geordi's death. And the idea of a large group of Q all looking like John de Lancie is a great idea; it's a shame that the TV show never tried this and that Pablo Marcos's de Lancie likeness is so poor that I needed the dialogue to understand what was happening. (Oh, and only in a comic book would the Enterprise crew, male and female, consider highly revealing skintight clothes appropriate attire for a holiday party. Yar seems to be dressed in some kind of leather bondage outfit!)… (more)