During the four year run of the Star Trek newspaper strip, only 152 color Sunday strips were published, 12/2/1979 thru 10/24/1982. The complete Sunday strip was designed to fill a "half" or "half tab" page, but was frequently reformatted and published in "full tab", "third", and "quarter" page formats. To reformat a half of the Star Trek Sunday strip into full tab, a single panel on the upper right of the half (sometimes called a throwaway panel) is dropped and the remaining panels are arranged in four rows. To reformat a half into a third, the entire top row of the half, including the title panel, is dropped. To reformat a half into a quarter, the upper right throwaway panel is dropped and the panels are rearranged in two rows.
For example, here is the complete Sunday half strip original art by Thomas Warkentin for April 27, 1980.
And here is the complete Sunday half strip as published on April 27, 1980.
Compare that to the Sunday full tab strip for April 27, 1980 (with upper right panel dropped).
The Sunday third strip for April 27, 1980 (with top row dropped).
The Sunday quarter strip for April 27, 1980 (with upper right panel dropped).
Unfortunately, newspaper publishers were free to format the Star Trek strip however they desired, in order to make room for advertisements and other local content. Consequently, only a few newspapers published the complete comic strip.
Beginning on May 10, 1981, the layout of the Star Trek Sunday strip changed. Some of the panels were resized so that the strip could be displayed as a half, full tab, or quarter without dropping a panel.
The new complete Sunday half strip layout original art by Ron Harris for June 21, 1981.
The Sunday full tab strip for June 21, 1981 (with nothing dropped).
What does all this fractional esoterica mean? Well, it means that most readers of the Star Trek strip have never seen the complete Sunday strips. To simplify reading the Sunday and daily strips together in Star Trek: The Newspaper Comics, Volume 1, graphic designers at the Library of American Comics used full tab page format for the Sunday strips, dropping a single panel from some of the complete half page strips and arranging the remaining panels like four daily strips. I believe there are 75 panels originally in the Sunday strips dated 12/2/1979 thru 5/3/1981 which were omitted from the collection.
Just to be clear, the omission of these panels doesn't affect the story at all. They were designed to be dropped by mean-spirited newspaper publishers determined to squeeze more advertising space onto rolls of newsprint, thereby facilitating the removal of more money from the pockets of forlorn Trekkies looking for the continuing adventures of the original crew. Little did these greedy, grasping newspaper publishers know that Star Trek, and the comics inspired by the television show and films might outlive printed newspapers, thanks to IDW Publishing and the Library of American Comics.
But obsessive-compulsive Trekkies (we know who we are) must see them all.
For your enjoyment, the missing panels. OK, not all the missing panels, but as many of them as I've been able to find so far. Can you help find the others? You'll need to look for the Sunday strips in half page format. The Baltimore Sun was one of the newspapers that published the half. I've seen a few others, but don't know which newspapers published them. If you can provide scans or snapshots of the upper right panel, please send them to stcomix at mac dot com. Better copies of any of the panels would also be appreciated. If possible, please include the date of the strip and the name of the newspaper. Meanwhile, I'll keep looking for missing panels, better versions of panels, and verifying that the panels I think are missing are really and truly missing. Thanks and keep on trekkin'.
At the beginning of this quest, most of these panels came from scans Rich Handley made a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. Oops. Wrong franchise. Anyway, a tip of the hat to Rich for making the Star Trek newspaper strips one of his obsessions. Constantine Hannaher provided a large batch of missing panels and better copies of panels. Lately, I've acquired some Baltimore Sun Sunday strips for my collection and replaced a few more panels. If a panel looks like the Star Trek newspaper strip logo, well, that's a missing missing panel.