Cosmos #1

Cosmos #1 1986 $2.00 Canadian $1.70 U.S.  MicMac Comics North Bay, Ontario, Canada

By Marc Gerszke, Michael Gauthier and Darren J. Matassa

   So, this cover is simply Bad Ass. You got your bare chested, tanned dude with a gun. He's sporting a pretty outstanding mullet (complete with bangs) and he's got his arm around his barely clothed woman. They're standing in the center of what looks to be a moon crater while a blood red planet illuminates them from behind. There's also a robot hovering over the young lady's shoulder. Clearly... this is already the sweetest comic book either of us has ever seen, am I right?

   Well, somehow instead of opening it up to scenes of this space rocker doing one armed pushups while performing cunnilingus (as we all expected), it begins with an unnecessary history lesson of Alnarn, the galaxy in which our story  takes place. This, unfortunately, goes on for six mind numbing pages before the story is set into motion.

   And, as if that's not bad enough, all of the text is written all future style, with the "A"s as triangles and the "O"s having a dot in the center, making them appear as an eyeball or a cartoon titty.

   Luckily, the lettering seems to slowly get more legible until by page six it's actually quite readable and not nearly as distracting.

   Also, it wasn't nearly the slog that it could've been to make it to page six as Matassa's art is pretty great, and looking at his planets, spaceships, monsters and even space itself is very satisfying.

 His people kind of look like biker tattoos, but hey, that's kind of cool. 

   So, when our story finally gets going we see a spaceship blast out of hyper drive above the Earth-like planet Granda.

   We follow it's pilot, Matt, to his apartment where he promptly gets laid by his ladyfriend, Jensine. I know I always like to get laid after completing a mission... Matt style!

Early the next morning, Matt is informed there are security leaks in the military and his next mission therefore might by "risky". He and his robot pal, Dex, head out to perform their mission of blowing up a shipping depot on Miten, the water world where two warring peoples are in constant battle to steal the planet's natural resources. 

   Everyone's drawn over sexualized... I mean, I swear, I kept expecting sex scenes to erupt out of nowhere due to the bulging muscles and half exposed breasts that are ever present. 

   Anyway, Matt and his team finally come out of hyper drive to Arainian ships badly outnumbering his team. They scramble to the landing ship and out maneuver their enemies, eventually landing on Miten.

   Expecting a battle there, they're surprised to find no opposition. They sneak onto the shipping depot but no one seems to be around. Matt gets suspicious and orders his men out of there... but too late!! The whole place explodes!

   Lt. Haslow, the traitorous asshole that he is, has blown up his own men. But, somehow, Matt survives. His robot pal Dex finds his near lifeless body and calls for help. I wish I had a robot pal.

   Matt's buddy Briggs rescues him, blasting Arainian ships that try to stop him. A very confusing space battle ensues, then... droid medics attempt to patch up Matt. Doctor Droid pronounces him dead... but thinks he can use cybernetic reconstruction to allow him to "live".

   Matt's torso, one arm and one leg are replaced with robotic parts all Robocop style.

Fifteen hours later... he lives!! He awakens and immediately freaks out a bit upon seeing his new body. And we get a nice peak at his buttocks. 

He soon reports to his superior that the mission was a failure thanks to Haslow betraying them. Matt then shows off his new robotic limbs to his boss man in a kick ass splash page! Woo!!

   And that's it, Overall, I found it to be sort of a confusing mess, but I gotta say it has a charm to it as well. I love the artwork, so rich in detail and style with all of the musclebound dudes and lanky girls with ridiculous cleavage. Also, the robots and ships were nifty and the way Matassa draws outer space, shadows and even hair is absolutely stupendous!

    This comic was clearly ahead of it's time, foreshadowing a lot of the early Image titles like Brigade and it's countless clones although with an amateur European cartoony style that I find much more visually pleasing. I probably would pick up issue two if I happened upon it in a dollar box, but I certainly wouldn't seek it out to order online or anything.

   You know, I just can't believe this was a Canadian endeavor. Seems very Californian to me. Then again, I was equally surprised when I found out Skinny Puppy was Canadian, so there you go.

Here's a drawing I did of Doctor Droid, the robot surgeon who gave Matt his new parts.

   Join me next month when I take a look at another wonder in the world of oddball micro-press comics...Earthman #1!