The last two years of life on this planet has certainly been some of the strangest of our human existence.
I can particularly recall, at the outset of COVID-19, ensuring the office-turned-pantry was full of baby formula and coffee. You know: the essential staples for any newborn – and new parent – during the uncertainty that lay ahead.
Various governmental lockdowns, aimed to keep individuals safe and stop the spread of the new disease, were difficult times for many. Anxiety and isolation during a pandemic, amongst many all-too-natural human emotions and physical predicaments could lead an individual to places one would never have visited otherwise. Good places and bad places.
For some, like the creative genius of Mike Mignola, creator of the famed Hellboy universe, it led to the drawing table…and deep space.
Being locked up in studio allowed Mignola’s mind to wander to far-flung reaches of the universe, merging science fiction with steampunk imagery. He created, and released via social media, a series of sketches and drawings featuring a somewhat crooked-standing, spacesuit-clad skull with a radio antenna affixed atop his helmet. During the time of rampant COVID, the drawings themselves went globally viral and fans clamoured for more.
Radio Spaceman was born!
Radio Spaceman #1 written by Mike Mignola (Hellboy, Cosmic Odyssey) and wonderfully illustrated by Greg Hinkle (The Beauty, Black Cloud) and published by Dark Horse Comics, is the first of a two-part miniseries in a story based on those original lock-down sketches. It’s a steampunk adventure full of mystery, weird, out-of-time gadgets, monsters and, of course, outer space science fiction.
In the debut issue, a crashed ship lands on a mysterious planet and Radio Spaceman is called to investigate. But this planet hides more than even he can handle!
A little Edgar Rice Burroughs, a little Forbidden Planet and a whole lot of Mike Mignola makes Radio Spaceman a must-read as we continue to open our economies, our doors and our minds in our nearly post-COVID-19 pandemic world. It’s a delightfully perfect, if brief, diversion, from all of the concerning events that exist in this world today.
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and catch the steampunk fun of Radio Spaceman #1.
