God Hates Astronauts

Comixology Unlimited has already proved a massive resource, and great value for money for readers in the US, but it's a deal that's about to get a whole lot sweeter over the next few months. In celebration of Image Comics' milestone 25th anniversary this year, Comixology Unlimited will add new complete or ongoing Image Comics series to the service every other week, beginning today with Bitch Planet, God Hates Astronauts, and Wytches.

As the record will show, I'm a pretty big fan of Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts, but every time I read a new issue, I'm always left with one question: How exactly is Browne going to top himself next time? I mean, the book's major selling point is that it's 20 pages of unrestrained id that just keeps getting weirder and weirder, but when your starting point is hillbilly rocketships being taken down by a superhero with the spectral head of a ghost cow, that's a little harder to do than it might seem. Fortunately, Browne is up for the challenge, which is why the second issue of the new ongoing series, out this week from Image, kicks off with astronauts (who are presumably hated by the Almighty) playing golf on the moon. Oh, and the astronauts are owls and there is also a swarm of evil space crabs on there too. Check it out below to see just how weird things can get in three short pages!

Comics are weird. I mean, that's part of their charm, right? And it makes sense that they would be. You take a medium that allows people to put whatever they want to on the page, have it defined by the offspring of pulp heroes and sci-fi and let it marinate for a few years, and you're going to get weird stuff like Superman with a lion head and the backstory of any given member of the Summers family. With the debut issue of God Hates Astronauts from Image, though, Ryan Browne has taken weirdness to an entirely new level. Seriously, this is without question one of the top five weirdest comics that I've read in my life, and other than being held together with two staples and having the words in more or less the right order, it's weird in every way, with something freshly bizarre on every single page. And it's also one of the most fun comics of the year.

Get ready for more insanity from the Power Persons Five. Writer/artist Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts, which started as a webcomic about crude, perhaps psychopathic superheroes battling outrageous villains and each other, and was eventually published in hardcover thanks to a massively successful Kickstarter, is coming to Image Comics as an ongoing series this August, and he promises all the si

This week on War Rocket Ajax, Blast Furnace and God Hates Astronauts creator Ryan Browne joins the show! We talk to him about his success with Kickstarter, his unique approach to Blast Furnace and how he feels about watching owls eat (super gross) -- and you can listen to the entire show right here at ComicsAlliance...

Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts has been one of my favorite webcomics ever since the opening scene, in which a team of superheroes battles against an army of boxing bears, and one of the superheroes gets punched in the face for sixteen straight panels...

I've been a fan of Ryan Browne for years based on God Hates Astronauts, the comic where he does superheroes being jerks to each other better than just about anyone else who tries, but his new book, Blast Furnace has exactly the kind of quirky twist that I love...

There are a lot of reasons why comic book conventions are great. Boxes of cheap back issues and the chance to chat with your favorite creators (or, if your standards are a bit lower, your third-favorite comic book critic) are great, but some of the real highlights come from the stuff...