Star Trek Fotonovels

Star Trek Fotonovels were a series of twelve softcover pocket photonovel books, produced by Mandala Productions and published by Bantam Books during the years 1977-1978. These books were essentially re-tellings of the episodes in question, with word balloons and text being arranged over the stills from the episode in the style of a comic book or graphic novel. Something of a short-term fad, such books were conceived in the days before the advent of home video, most notably VHS, and quickly fell out of fashion thereafter. No specific order was observed, be it production, or broadcast order-wise. Instead, a random selection, stemming from all three seasons of the Original Series was selected for adaptation, resulting in all three seasons being represented in the twelve-issue run of the publication.
Five of the first six titles have seen a reprint run around 1979/1980 ( being the exception) in order to make the most out of the fervor surrounding the premiere of , and were endowed with new ISBNs. It was in conjunction with the event that these first six titles of the Bantam editions also saw translated international releases in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as two in Japan, these two actually featuring a heavy use of imagery from the film on their covers. For Latin-America, a pan-American produced – involving companies located in the USA, Panama and Venezuela – Spanish-language version was released in 1979 of the first seven issues as monthly outings under the "GeoMundo" imprint, and distributed in, among others, the USA, Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Panama. Each of these editions had a price imprint representing the local currency.
A somewhat out-of-the-ordinary release concerned the 1980 Indonesian versions. These editions had their origins in the efforts had undertaken in the late-1970s/early-1980s to introduce their former colony to the phenomenon of the European comic. It is very hard to ascertain how far the publication effort extended due to the low status of comics in Indonesian society (creating imagery of living creatures, including men, is frowned upon in Muslim culture), but an Indonesian release of the eleventh title is known, implying that the Indonesians went farther than the Dutch, who ceased publication after the first six titles – as did the Germans for that matter. Conceivably unlicensed, the Indonesian releases differed from all the others in this respect, that they were executed in black and white instead of full color.
== Releases ==
No. 	Cover 	Title 	Year 	Publisher 	ISBN
1 	 	City on the Edge of Forever 	 	Bantam Books 	(1979/80 reprint)
1 	 	City on the Edge of Forever 	 	Corgi Books (UK) 	
1 	 	De Stad aan de Rand van Altijd (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
1 	 	La ciudad en el abismo eterno (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
1 	 	Die Stadt am Rande der Ewigkeit (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71001 – German)	
1 	 	Kiken'na kako e no tabi (Japanese) 	 	Tatsumi Mook (Japanese) 	n/a
1 	 	Gerbang ke masa silam (Indonesian) 	 	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian) 	n/a
2 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	(1979/80 reprint)
2 	no image yet	 	 	Corgi Books (UK) 	
2 	 	Waar geen Mens is eerder is gegaan (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
2 	 	¡Donde nadie ha ido jamás! (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
2 	 	Vorstoß zur Unsterblichkeit (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71002 – German)	
2 	 	Dare mo mae ni ika nakatta basho (Japanese) 	 	Tatsumi Mook (Japanese) 	n/a
3 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	(1979/80 reprint)
3 	 	Problemen met de Dribbels (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
3 	 	Problemas Con Criaturas Galacticas (Spanish)	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
3 	 	Invasion der Tribbles (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71005 – German)	
4 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	(1979/80 reprint)
4 	 	Een Voorproefje van Armageddon (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
4 	 	Un destello de Armageddon (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
4 	 	Duell der Planeten (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71006 – German)	
4 	 	Perang antar komputer (Indonesian) 	 	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian) 	n/a
5 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
5 	 	Metamorfose (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
5 	 	Metamorfosis (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
5 	 	Das Geschenk der Götter (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71007 – German)	
6 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	(1979/80 reprint)
6 	 	Al onze dagen van Weleer (Dutch) 	 	Tijdschriften Uitgevers Maatschappij (Dutch) 	n/a
6 	 	Todo nuestro ayer (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
6 	 	Flucht aus der Vergangenheit (German) 	 	Bastei Verlag (Filmromane No. 71008 – German)	
7 	 	The Galileo 7 	 	Bantam Books 	
7 	 	El Galileo 7 (Spanish) 	 	Editorial América, SA (as GeoMundo – Spanish)	n/a
8 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
9 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
10 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
11 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
11 	 	Tahun-Tahun maut (Indonesian) 	 	Penerbit Cypress (Indonesian) 	n/a
12 	 	 	 	Bantam Books 	
Boxed set	Boxed set 	Boxed set 	Boxed set	Boxed set 	Boxed set
1 	 	Cardboard slipcase containing the individual titles,
*City on the Edge of Forever
*Where No Man Has Gone Before
*The Trouble with Tribbles
*A Taste of Armageddon	 	Bantam Books 	n/a
==See also==
*Star Trek Photostories
Fotonovels