A new Star Trek comic debuted last week when IDW Publishing releases the first issue of its Star Trek: The Next Generation series "The Space Between."

StarTrek.com reports that this first title will be a six-issue release that arrived in stores on January 17th. "The Space Between", which celebrates the 20th anniversary of The Next Generation, spans that series' era with a story that begins during Captain Picard's first year.

"I couldn't be happier to be shepherding Star Trek comics in the 21st century," Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall said. "We've hit on some unique ways to bring new vibrancy and creativity to the line...can't wait to let the fans know more of what we have in mind."

Writer David Tischman told Comic News International that he was a "huge" Star Trek fan and had followed all the series, though he refused to choose a favourite between Captain Kirk and Captain Picard. "I'm concentrating most on getting the character stuff down, and the interpersonal relationships between those characters - if that feels authentic to the fans, I will have succeeded," he said.

Tischman added that the trick was to come up with a storyline that had not already been done on one of the previous series while keeping the episodic story firmly within canon. "The parameters set by the existing episodes make it pretty clear what can and can't be done," he said.

Artist Casey Maloney said that working on IDW's Star Trek comics had finally allowed him to make a career of being an artist. In an interview with Broken Frontier, he said, "I'm enjoying my illustrations much more than before and I feel much more confident." The characters come more easily to Maloney than the ship interiors:

For example, Data is kind of like an owl in the way that he never really moves his pupils. Whenever he speaks to someone he stares at them dead and only raises his head and eyebrows a bit when he makes a point. Also, Picard kind of talks more out of the left side of his mouth and when he is commanding on the bridge always holds his head up high. I can’t say if these things come across in my drawings, but I feel they help. The sets and starships are the hardest aspects of the book, in my opinion.

StarTrek.com is having a contest for fans to win the first issue of the comic. Details are here.

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