Astronauts Hate Bad Books
This is a book I was really looking forward to for the past month or so (late review because issue 1 sold out at my local comic shops). I've seen ads for it in other Image books, heard non-related comic creators talk it up at an Image panel in Boston, and read good reviews for it. I really wanted this book to be good, but it let me down.
Let me start by saying this isn't the worst book I've read. It gets two stars because the artwork is good and the book is certainly . . . creative. That being said, it's creative the way a 5 year old is creative. The entire things reads like a pair of kindergarteners riffing off each other and just throwing in whatever happened to jump into their heads. Like Axe Cop but with more id and less ego to restrain it. And if that's your kind of comic go for it, just know that, like with most 5 year old's artwork, it's not up on the fridge because you're still waiting to hear back from the Louvre.
What do I mean by all this? Let's look at a couple (of what felt like thousands) of examples from the first issue. Characters like "Prince Tiger Eating A Cheeseburger" help reinforce my opinion that they just threw in whatever. The same goes for the blue cow-headed guy who appears on the cover, "Star Grass," who has possibly the worst and wordiest origin I've ever seen. Which brings me to another point: this book is dense. Not just stupid, which it also is, but incredibly wordy for a book with no decent concepts to justify so many words. The wordiness of the book does it a lot of harm, as I feel the entire thing would be better if it was just the images in sequence without any words.
Long story short, if you're looking for a serious book or a good story avoid this book. If you want something funny give this about 5-10 minutes of your time before it wears on you (it felt like a chore forcing myself to read past the halfway point). If you haven't slept in the past 48 hours you might enjoy this, but otherwise I don't see how you could.