Star Trek (DC) #19 p. 3 by Walter Koenig & Dan Spiegle

I met Walter Koenig, who wrote this issue, when he was promoting it at a Heroes Con back in the day. He was very approachable and knew how to work a large crowd of Trek fans. I grew up watching the original series, I had good memories of meeting Mr. Koenig and I enjoyed reading this issue, so I was quite happy when this page popped up at a relatively cheap price. Of the big 3, only Bones is missing from the page, and, of course, it has three pretty good panels with Pavel Chekov.

I bought the art from Mr. Spiegle's son, also named Dan, who was selling a lot of his father's pages on eBay. During our correspondence after the auction, he wrote back about growing up with his father and his single-greatest memory of meeting Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke when his dad was drawing the adaptation of Mary Poppins for Gold Key. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Here's a side note to all you Trekkies and TV addicts (don't mean to diss, don't mean to bring static): When I was a reporter for my college paper, I got to interview Gene Roddenberry when he was coming to our campus to give one of his Star Trek lectures. He called me on the phone at his convenience. It was Gene's world. I only lived in it. Rest well, Gene.

Here's another side note for all you Klingons in your grandma's house: In Japan, whenever I would have a final lesson with one of my English classes, I would always teach them "Live long and prosper." It goes over very well, especially if you are also wearing a Mr. Spock necktie. Be sure to teach them the proper hand gesture. (I'll skip the story about being stopped by a Japan's custom checker who, when going through my bags on a return trip from home found some tapes of Star Trek: TNG my sister had made for me -- he thought it was porn and had to check it out. The dude came back, his eyes were all wide, and, for a second, I wondered if my sister had accidentally taped Cinemax After Dark or something, but no, it turned out he was a Trekkie. Wait, I guess I didn't skip that story. Oh well.)