SNS: The Cosmic Adv. of Gena Kranz

Time again to return to the world of Sugary Serials, the online anthology with Saturday Morning marshmallows. I mean aesthetics. Tonight we we take a look at another offering from BW faves Jerzy Drozd and Mark Rudolph as they are joined by Jerzy’s wife, Anne, to bring us a tale of outer space adventure. Click the cover below to read The Cosmic Adventures of Gena Kranz!

{click to read this comic online}

First thing to note: love that logo. Very cool.

Gena isn’t the first, and despite our sadly lowered interest in the space program in the real world probably not the last, Earth astronaut to get lost in space, but it’s not a theme used too often and helps bring the readers into the comic’s “world” as we follow Gena trying to understand the galaxy around her. What is different, however, is the fact that she doesn’t jump right into action to save the day, which a lot of male heroes are usually depicted doing and many of today’s female heroes emulate because the males did it for so long and they feel left out or some junk. Instead, she ends up overwhelmed by her situation, but is able to pull herself together, and that moment of weakness actually puts her in the position to save the day. Talk about turning a weakness into a strength.

Also, the character designs make sense. They do not appear to have gone out of their way to make the wildest alien designs possible simply because they could or to show off how imaginative they are. We get a bug, a tree, a snake…dragon…lizard…thing, and a hippo. How many space hippos have we seen in comics or TV? Even Komio’s true form is rather normal as science fiction aliens go. Also, Ed the hippo is a girl, which makes me wonder if someone has seen Cowboy Bepop. 🙂

The best scene comes in two parts, the beginning…

She brought her teddy bear? Awwwww.

…and completed at the end.

She brought her hippo? Awwwwww...no, wait.

The Cosmic Adventures of Gena Kranz doesn’t appear to be published in any of the Sugary Serials anthologies, but Mark and Jerzy’s publishing wing, Tiny Astronaut, does have the comic on its own up at IndyPlanet and, kid or adult, I think it’s a good match for any fun-loving collector’s longbox.