Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Larry Young
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Editor: Mimi Rosenheim
Price: $2.99 Print & Digital
Release date: OUT NOW!

I’m coming late to Astronauts In Trouble but there seems to be some kind of TV station beneath the surface of the moon which is being bombarded by missiles. Three plucky astronauts are on the moon’s surface trying to re-position a directional antennae to save everyone from a fiery Armageddon with limited success. Oh, and there’s a cute robot called a ‘scuttlebot’ as well.

Astronauts In Trouble begins with three pages of fuzzy grey panels is either immensely confident or immensely dumb. The quote on the cover proudly proclaims that: ‘Larry Young reinvented comics for the twenty-First Century’ so guess which one they’re pitching for here? Actually, that quote seems kind of strange since there is a definite retro feel to this. Its black and white artwork brings back fond memories of 1960’s British comics – don’t you just love the smell of cheap newsprint in the morning? – and the whole thing has a sort of Gerry Anderson vibe about it.

But hey, why not let one of the beleaguered astronauts in Astronauts In Trouble tell you about it in. ‘We don’t have much oxygen in our suits, we don’t have enough power to keep fending off these missiles, we’ve got an irate band of . . . I dunno, space mercenaries, or something, who are after our heads . . . all funded by an insane billionaire who’s claimed the moon as his own personal property’.

And that, my friends, is as comprehensive and audacious an update as you will find anywhere in the comic book universe!

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker