When We Were Trekkies by Joe Sikoryak comics review

When We Were Trekkies. by Joe Sikoryak. joesikoryak.com. Bundle of 10 issues. 180pp. $35.

Joe Sikoryak, a filmmaker and cartoonist, provides a very moving, funny and unusual comic. As the title implies, it’s about Star Trek but it’s mostly about being a young person and finding yourself. Now, the purists may have problems with my suggesting that Star Trek take a backseat. But fear not, true believers, it all adds up. This is a wonderful coming-of-age story. And you really feel like you’re there with the kids who were the most loyal fans.

So, how do you navigate through your younger years: a time of raging hormones, developing your own identity and being true to your deepest passions? Well, it doesn’t hurt to be with like-minded souls. You find your tribe. In this case, the tribe is all about Star Trek. But, as I suggest, just like American Graffiti was about cars and music, in the end, you want to know if the boy will get to kiss the girl.

Into the fray. The early days of cosplay.

Our story is set in the 1970s in a small town in New Jersey where five young men (ages 16-21) become immersed in the growing fandom for Star Trek, a science fiction television series which ran for a mere three seasons (1966-69) but continued to intrigue new viewers who discovered it on TV as re-runs. Our protagonist, Jonny ( an alter ego of the author) is the youngest member of what becomes a sort of boy’s club (at least in the beginning) with the guys attending Star Trek conventions, participating in cosplay competitions and basically being part of that first wave of diehard fans which would propel interest in more and more Star Trek entertainment, even major motion pictures.

Those wild and wooly early Star Trek conventions.

As I go back and rifle through all ten issues of this graphic narrative, I gotta say there’s a certain feeling of satisfaction at having all the issues together, as if I had painstakingly collected them, one by one. For folks who maintain a pull list at their local comic book shop, you’ll easily relate. I think our author, Joe Sikoryak, couldn’t help but want to evoke that “collector’s high” for the reader. Collecting is a key element of being a fan, which you can unpack any number of ways. Those early fans were collecting re-run views of Star Trek in order to see the bigger picture. That sense of collecting easily overlapped with the experience of collecting a series of comic books in order to experience that bigger picture, the complete run to a particular story. You can proceed from there to any number of other forms of collecting: going to conventions, amassing a network of friends, entering contests, documenting events. And so on.

Geraldo Rivera and William Shatner.

Jonny and his friends get to know all aspects of fandom and even some they probably could have done without, like all the tedious details involved in organizing a group of cosplay competition contestants. In Issue #6, the gang gets up close and personal with how the world-at-large might view Star Trek via the media. By chance, they get to participate as representatives of the cosplay scene by appearing in the audience for Good Night America (1974-77), a sort of spin-off of Good Morning America which Geraldo Rivera ruled over in his distinctively rakish way. Of course, a lot of things get misrepresented. For some goofy reason, there’s a segment with child pitchman superstar Mason Reese providing “expert” commentary. William Shatner, however, is the main focus and he doesn’t let down the true believers. Speaking from his heart, he honestly concludes that there’s something very special about Star Trek and he’s just there to let it happen, not get in its way. And, in similar fashion, I can say that Joe Sikoryak does his best not to get in the way of his own story showcasing young and vulnerable characters. Sikoryak has got a sixth sense about it and, through his writing and his artwork, he truly captures their spirit.

Mason Reese sees it all.

Moving forward to Issue #7, you’ve got my vote for best convergence of pop culture with auto-bio drama in a comic in quite a while. Jonny is utterly infatuated with Ani, a very sexy cosplay competitor who paints her entire body green. Ani and Jonny have just completed a little performance in a hotel lobby when a “celebrity” catches sight of them. Mason Reese, the 8-year-old tophat-wearing-pitchman for pudding and potato chips makes his presence known and quips to Ani: “That’s a very authentic costume. Are you green all over?” Ani, not missing a beat, lifts up her dress to, presumably, reveal everything. The composition is at a discreet angle so it’s left up to the reader but, yeah. Mason’s jaw drops to the floor.

William Shatner and Geraldo Rivera on Good Night America, January 23, 1975.

Now, if we go back to Issue #6, even better than the whole Mason Reese episode, as far as pop culture colliding with memoir goes, has got to be Jonny and the gang in the audience to see Good Night America. As Sikoryak points out in the footnotes to this issue, this really happened. The episode is from January 23, 1975 and is archived on Geraldo Rivera’s website, as well as available on Sikoryak’s website.

Anyway, who says Star Trek can’t help provide enough wit and wisdom to last you a whole lifetime. Jonny seems all the better for it. He does wonder if perhaps he’ll outgrow his love of comics, music and sci-fi, all the things that have been there for him as he faces his rites of passage into adulthood. But, as this comic book will attest, the good stuff never goes away. It will always be around, either riding shotgun with you for the rest of your life’s journey; or waiting to be rediscovered when you need it most. When We Were Trekkies speaks to that kind of powerful energy, not to be taken lightly but to be honored and celebrated just like it is in this most remarkable comic.