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Unlike most columns on this site, this one is about a book, not a movie or TV/streaming series. The book is “It Rhymes with Takei”; a new graphic memoir from famed Star Trek actor, political activist, author and playwright George Takei, who once again collaborates with coauthors Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and illustrator Harmony Becker.

Eisinger, Scott and Becker previously worked with Takei on his 2019 graphic memoir “They Called Us Enemy”; which recounted the Takei family’s four year imprisonment in a Japanese-American interment camp during World War 2, when Takei was very young. The book’s “graphic memoir” format allowed it to reach a broader audience than a standard book. “They Called Us Enemy” was inspired partly by Takei’s 1994 autobiography “To the Stars” and the 2012 musical “Allegiance,” which was written by Jay Kuo and Lorenzo Thione, with an accompanying book by Marc Acito. “Allegiance” was a fictionalized version of the Takei family’s experiences in that Japanese-American interment camp, informed by George’s own childhood experience. The musical ultimately made its way to Broadway in 2016, with Takei himself costarring (and singing).

“They Called Us Enemy” told a critical chapter in Takei’s life, and how that traumatic experience influenced his life and career afterward. Takei’s family (American citizens all) were detained without due process; stripped of their property and freedom simply because they were Japanese-Americans. Takei’s early experience with government-sanctioned bigotry later transformed into a passion for civics, and a yearning to be an actor. In the latter ambition, Takei found creative outlets on stage, and in guest spots on TV shows, such as playing a possessed Japanese gardener in “The Encounter,” a 1964 episode of Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone.” That episode would be banned for many years in reruns due to its heavy racial themes. Soon after, Takei would be cast in the second pilot of the original “Star Trek” in the summer of 1965 (“Where No Man Has Gone Before”) and the rest is history…

Having detailed his experiences in that Arkansas camp and how they influenced his life, Takei and his collaborators now present “It Rhymes with Takei” (2025); which chronicles Takei’s experiences as a gay man, living most of his life in the closet for the sake of his career and even his relationship with his own family. This book’s title comes from Takei seeking an alternate word for gay, following a 2022 Florida law which forbade the very word from being uttered in a classroom; he suggested using ‘Takei’ instead. Takei’s sexuality is that other aspect of his life which was a glaring omission from his prior autobiography, “To the Stars.”

I bought my own copy of “It Rhymes with Takei” last week at San Diego Comic Con 2025 at the IDW Comics booth, and I decided to buy the limited edition hand-autographed copy with the iridescent covers (#678 of 1000 copies), since I wasn’t sure if I would get the chance to have Takei sign a standard copy later on at the convention. The gentleman at the booth who helped me make up my mind was Leigh Walton, a marketing & publicity representative from Top Shelf Comics, and I thanked him. Taking the book back to my hotel room, I would read its 330-odd pages during the convention, as it was too compelling not to finish.

Takei’s candor about living a double-life for 68 years feels more heartbreaking than timid, given the context of the times. Takei’s relationship with his own younger brother Henry would be one such sacrifice for coming out, though his beloved nephew Scotty continued to show his uncle admiration and support. With lifelong gay friends in my own orbit, I too, saw the open shunning of LGBTQ persons in those days. The idea of legalized gay marriage, for example, was far-fetched to the general public in the neo-conservative 1980s.

Resisting an impulse to be Civil Rights Illustrated, “It Rhymes with Takei” has a simplicity and whimsy to it (a credit to illustrator Harmony Becker’s artwork), with stories of Takei’s early work dubbing Japanese monster movies (“Rodan”); as well as his repeated frustrations with ethnic typecasting, for which he did his best to deliver authenticity. The book is also a refreshingly romantic story, as well. Readers feel Takei’s fumbling nervousness and jitters whenever he’d meet someone he found attractive, as we see during a sexually-charged ride on the back of a new friend’s motorcycle during his time studying in England. An extra layer of complication would inevitably arise when young Takei wondered if any person he found attractive was gay or straight, or worse yet, out him as gay, and ruin his nascent career.

The book openly chronicles Takei’s occasional hookups as well as his painful failures. Those clandestine encounters eventually gave way to meeting the love of his life, Brad Altman, after joining a discreet gay running club in the early 1980s. Around this same time, Takei was also heavily involved in Los Angeles politics, but was terrified of being outed by opposition research when he was encouraged to run for then-mayor Tom Bradley’s vacated L.A. City Council seat. Takei eventually became a board director for the city’s then-new subway system.

The book also glimpses Takei’s intermittent returns to the Star Trek universe during production of the feature films. In addition to the ups and downs of Takei’s career, there are a few hilarious side-anecdotes, such as a disastrous convention booking for Takei and a few of his Star Trek costars, which led to his sharing a single bed in a crowded hotel with the late, great Nichelle Nichols. Takei joked it was something many straight men would dream of (check). But to them, it was a night of solace and safety with a friend. Nichols would later serve as Takei’s “best lady” during his 2008 wedding ceremony to Brad Altman.

Note: Takei also announced San Diego Comic Con that he’s returning to the role of Captain Hikaru Sulu for writer Nicholas Meyer‘s “Star Trek: Khan” audio drama-podcast, which is now set to debut on most podcast platforms on September 8th. I assume Capt. Sulu will appear in a framing story for what promises to be an exploration of Khan’s time in exile on Ceti Alpha V, preceding the events of 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Looking forward to this one.

The book also covers the then-closeted Takei’s anger, pain and frustration during the AIDS epidemic, which saw George and Brad losing many friends and loved ones to the disease in those days before the virus was isolated and treatments were discovered. Speaking as someone who lost my own best friend to AIDS back in 1991, I can honestly say this part of the book was the hardest for me to get through. However, that dark experience strengthened Takei’s advocacy for the LGBTQ community, and would eventually lead to his coming out in 2005, after then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger reneged on a promise to keep gay marriage legal in California. Eventually, the case would be fought in the US Supreme Court, and gay marriage would ultimately become law across the United States in 2015–a deeply personal victory for George and Brad.

With that, Takei takes readers to the uncomfortable present of 2025, with the hard setbacks experienced by the LGBTQ community (and many others) during the second Trump administration. After so much progress, it’s very difficult to witness a new, more brutal wave of LGBTQ intolerance making a most unwelcome comeback. The memoir illustrates the continual tug of war between heartbreak and optimism, as Takei reminds us that the work against injustice and intolerance is never done. “It Rhymes with Takei” is a human story, filled with anguish, struggles, challenges, disappointments and disillusionment, along with romance, triumph, love and family–both biological and found. It’s a reminder that human beings of all sexualities share more in common than we might think.

If you’re a Star Trek fan who truly embraces the show’s philosophy of “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations,” then you owe it to yourself to read this book, which demonstrates how those differences intersect with the shared commonalities of human experience. This is not a review; it’s a recommendation. “It Rhymes with Takei” is a must-read.

Live long and prosper, folks.