Archie Comics 2018
Written by Ian Flynn
Illustrated by Tracy Yardley
Coloured by Matt Herms
Lettered by Jack Morelli
After rescuing the human astronaut Max Strongjaw from his busted shuttle, Cosmo and his crew of Martian explorers travelled to the Earth's moon to investigate a distress signal. What was intended to be a simple rescue mission turned into a bigger adventure when a chaotic carnival of creatures suddenly appeared…
So much thanks to this crew because this is completely and utterly delightful. The fact that Ian is so fluently able to write an all-ages book that has the right amount of adult humour that only they will understand while still being cute as heck and accessible to kids well my hats off to him for this ability. I am so fascinated by this already and when I saw it was out this week I smiled and couldn’t wait for it. So to get excited over a book this way well that’s a rarity anymore.
While Jojo is an amazing companion animal, to us he’s the equivalent of a dog, as we discover him to be this issue was a nice shocker. I hope to see more things such as this be thrown at us because the surprise element always works well. The way that Ian has structured this is exceptionally well done and the ebb & flow of story, information and characterisation that we see here not only moves this along nicely but it allows us to get to know these characters pretty darn well.
The whole idea that there are all these planets out there that are inhabited, have used our moon to build an amusement park and all the while have remained unknown to the population of Earth is one of those great twists in this book. It is also one of the things that makes me appreciate the dialogue and the interactions we see. Between Medulla’s excitement and joy at getting to study the creatures, Lunatiks, and the fact that there’s a Venusian Battle Princess involved and Max’s first reaction to that well that made my night!
The work Tracy does here is just as fantastic as Ian’s writing is. His use of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a very strong eye for storytelling. Backgrounds are used as needed which in an all-ages I get though I’d still like to see more of them in use. The characters emote very nicely and it’s easy to see how they feel by their faces and the exaggerated Strongjaw well that kind of kitsch works. Plus I do enjoy the creativity and imagination that he gets to have some fun with in these pages.
This is a perfectly balanced all-ages series so far that would be at home in any home. Cute, fun and imaginative the storytelling is some of the nicest that is on stands because of it’s dual nature. I think Archie has struck gold with this one and while Sonic may have found a new home I’m expecting to be seeing Cosmo for a good solid, see long, run. Also provided the animation style stayed as close to Tracy’s work as possible I could see this as a cartoon series as well.