Ken Penders, Star Trek – The Captain Kirk Era, Main Cast and Enterprise

Classic Star Trek scene with the Enterprise in orbit and an internal shot of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekhov in a briefing. Despite having faded after being framed and hung in sunlight, there’s still beauty in this page. The characters are recognizable, the panel flow is expert, you get the ship and crew all on one page, and there’s a beautiful guest star to make Kirk feel like he’s in command.

My suspicion is that this page was a tryout. The lady in the space-age jump suit only appeared in issues 4-13 and the first Special of the second DC Star Trek series, none of which were drawn by Ken Penders. The page does look a lot like the scene on page 12 of issue 6 (1990), which was drawn by James Fry; but this version is spiced up with a larger planetary shot, a lot more detail in the faces, and R.J. (jump suit lady) sporting this classic look. Circa 1990.

*Update* Ken Penders confirmed to me at WonderCon 2022 that he drew this as a tryout for DC Comics. Thanks for shedding some light on that, Ken!