Comic(s) Relief: God Hates Astronauts Is A Raucous Delight

You won't hate God Hates Astronauts.

By David Wharton | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

GodHatesAstroComic shelves are full of serious stories dealing with crime and death, but God Hates Astronauts is here to remind people that this medium need never follow any rules or guidelines in order to produce something genius. Created by writer and illustrator Ryan Browne, God Hates Astronauts started life as a webcomic that felt like something your parents wouldn’t want you reading, and has now become an Image Comics series that plays around with formatting and fourth wall-breaking just as much as it does with its central plot. This is a comic with the onomatopoeic sound effects “Dick Pain!” and “Kosmic Merger!” as well as a surprise exposition-spouting blob named 3-D Cowboy, because he’s in 3-D and wears a cowboy hat. This is as surreally irreverent as it gets.

So let’s try and nail down a logline here. There are a group of astro-farmers looking to blast themselves into space, led by Lord Astro-Farmer, a man persecuted for being involved in a romantic relationship with a giant chicken person. (I’ll let you figure out for yourself how that torrid affair started.) In line to stop him are the NASA-sponsored supergroup the Power Persons Five, led by Space Grass, a half-man/half-ghost cow head. Part of it involves a mystical being called The Impossible, and part of it involves a bunch of crabs heading to Crabulon in a spaceship commanded by Admiral Tiger Eating a Cheeseburger, whose father is King Tiger Eating a Cheeseburger. And, you know, cheeseburgers are eaten and other stuff happens.

One of the most original comics I’ve read in a while, if only because Browne casually encompasses anything and everything into his writing, God Hates Astronauts is a constant delight. The raucous humor and foul language are there, the meta humor and clever jokes are there, and there’s just enough spacey super-powered action to balance it out perfectly. It’s one of the few comics where every word is important, from the setting descriptions to the front-page credits, and they’re all funny. Find a copy of this comic as soon as possible, before Space Grass makes more things explode.

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