Star Trek #23

This Gold Key issue from 1974 promises a genuinely unsettling premise, as the cover tagline warns of "a planetful of doomed children — playing their deadliest game!" George Wilson's painted cover sets the mood vividly: the looming, wide-eyed face of a young person wearing a tall ceremonial crown dominates the background, while Kirk and a crewmember clash in close combat against armored and robed adversaries below, with photo portraits of Spock and Kirk inset in the upper corner. Writer Gerry Boudreau and artist Alberto Giolitti bring "Child's Play" to life inside, and with a setup this ominous, the Enterprise crew clearly has their hands very full.