Star Trek #4

Star Trek #4, published by Gold Key Comics in 1968, emerged during the final season of the original television series. Gold Key held the license for Star Trek comics for over a decade, though their early interpretations frequently deviated from the show's established lore, often depicting the crew in costumes and settings that diverged from the source material due to the limited reference art available to the publisher at the time.

The cover and interior art for this period of the Gold Key run were typically handled by studio artists rather than celebrity illustrators, resulting in a distinct, slightly surreal aesthetic that has become a point of curiosity for modern fans. While the writing was often criticized for its inconsistencies with the television program's tone, these early issues are now regarded as significant artifacts of the 1960s pop culture landscape, representing a time when science fiction media franchises were only beginning to explore the medium of serialized comic books.