I've been trying to think of how best to succinctly describe "Cosmic Detective". The best I've come up with: It's kinda like if Grant Morrison wrote vaporwave "Blade Runner" and then halfway through had an existential crisis.... and I mean that in the best way. Matt Kindt's art pops off the page, while Jeff Lemire's words burrow into your head. "Cosmic Detective" is a reminiscent of classic film noir without ever feeling beholden to the past. Instead, it creates its own vibrant world, that looks and feels all its own. I certainly wouldn't mind if Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt wanted to visit that world again...

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of Cosmic Detective! I actually ended up going out and buying the hard copy, as I find a traditional book so much more enjoyable when reading graphic novels. Once I had it in my hands, I really enjoyed this gritty, retro-futuristic mystery from Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. It was a fast paced, dark, disturbing story that gave me flashbacks to reading The Watchmen for the first time.

Our main character, a family man to his core, is sent out to investigate an otherwordly mystery, But this time, the victim is someone he didn't know could die. The investigation makes him question everything he believed about humans and the universe.

I loved the bright colors and vivid details and was absorbed into the mystery as it unfolded. It had Meow Wolf vibes, if Meow Wolf was a life-threatening art exhibit.

The book left me with as many questions as answers, and I'm hoping there will be more to come.

I give it 8/10 stars and recommend it to those who love gritty murder mysteries and looming questions about our place in the universe.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and Image Comics for the DRC I received!
I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It was clever, quick-paced and had fantastic humour. It balanced the serious topics with a dry wit and kept you interested from the first page. I finished the story and immediately wanted more! I'll be keeping an eye out for these authors in the future.

The Cosmic Detective follows the detective as he uncovers the murder of a cosmic god. This murder threatens to tear apart the very fabric of reality and there is only one person to stop it, our detective.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy.

Unfortunately, I did not care for this graphic novel. I felt like I was left in the dark a bit too much, and I just felt a bit lost throughout the whole story. I did like the art, though. There were some really beautiful pages, and all the different colors in the scenes were very cool. Others may enjoy this, but it wasn’t for me.

Cosmic Detective follows an unnamed detective as he investigates the murder of a rhubarb… Uh, I mean god-like eternal being. Look, it totally makes sense when you read the book.

The story of Cosmic Detective from Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt sees that detective get too close to figuring out exactly what happened to that god-like eternal being before everything falls apart. Who are they? What are they doing here? What’s going on?

The artwork in this book was wild. Every time that I flipped the (digital) page, I had no idea what to expect next. David Rubin did an incredible job, and I loved the way that this book looked. The way the gods were portrayed was super cool.

I wanted to check this book out because of the title and the cover. I know that’s common, but I truly do love just blindly picking a comic based on the title and cover. I dove fully into this book without even reading the synopsis, and I was pleasantly rewarded.

I had a lot of fun with this book and think you should check it out if you get the chance. This is the second book from Image Comics that I’ve read lately that I really dug (Do A Powerbomb!).

Thank you Netgalley and Image Comics for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

i’m really not sure how to rate this. 3.5/5 stars?

so. i thought i was the target audience for this. i am So Not…LOL! i thought a cosmic fantasy horror noir comic was TOTALLY up my alley. perhaps this is from my lack of knowledge on the common tenets of noir, but it gave a really masculinist energy that i wasn't really vibing with. there were definitely things i enjoyed though!

the good:
→ the overall concept work was really exciting!!! as a newbie to some of these genres, i really enjoyed the concept of detectives who research “gods” and can “decorporealize” to travel and shit. (there were some common elements such as “staunch male detective runs around trying to find missing girl” too, though).
→ maybe this is a controversial opinion, but the worldbuilding was well-done to me. the universe, tech, and “magic” were all super interesting. the balance of context and mystery was effective in keeping my attention.
→ the sense of there being multiple high-stakes mysteries/unsolved questions was really exciting (and the unraveling of the case had both good tension and “resolution”).

the bad:
→ idk it just felt like this was written for straight people. it had the raunchy/male humor vibes of adult cartoons at times. i don’t think it was particularly in-your-face about it but it was just like hmmmmmmm…this doesn’t quite pass the vibe check as something i would generally recommend to other queer readers.

the neutral?:
→ the art style. it was magnificently detailed and colored. the page layouts were awesome. there was a gritty ambiance. but the way the illustrator drew children was SO fucked up LOL. you can’t tell me those littler fuckers were kids. they will haunt my dreams. definitely added to the horror elements though. all in all, it was just objectively quality art.
→ super existential.

overall, reading it made me feel and think about a lot of different things, so i think it was an interesting and worthwhile experience. it seems like it ended with anticipation of a sequel, so i’m interested to see how they handle their potential protagonists in the future.

This is such a thinker book, where you are on your toes about the world and the mystery our cosmic detective is trying to solve. I really did enjoy reading this, despite it not being my preferred vibe of graphic novel (love more fantasy, cozy, and sweet).

The art style is the vibrant jewel tones and grit that I do really enjoy overall. The story is more fast paced and not revealing much quickly to help us understand the world. The story is more mysterious and gritty detective.

3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, and read it through in one sitting. The illustrations and colours used perfectly set the tone for this gritty, otherworldly noir detective adventure. The characters are fun, and the storyline well-timed.

It certainly contains ongoing tropes that I am trying to avoid these days by reading work from more diverse authors. The gender/patriarchal stereotypes are so strong that it had me rolling my eyes, and wondering if this was written for a 1950's audience! The big strong male detective, with a loving stay-at-home wife and mother to his children (or he at least thinks he has), a helpless kidnapped pregnant woman, an elderly female archivist, and lonely male mortician.... it really is too much. I sincerely hope that the younger generations of artists can rise up with a vast range of diverse representation on all fronts, and steer away from playing out the same tired tropes that ableist, white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist systems have spoon-fed us for far too long.

For the art's sake, which I believe to be very strong, I will give this graphic novel a solid 3.5 stars.

Huge gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher, Image Comics, for an eARC of this graphic novel in exchange for my (probably far too) honest opinion.

Cosmic Detective, a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt and David Rubin

I often enjoy a paranormal detective story and I read a lot of graphic novels, but I did not particularly enjoy this one. While I do appreciate a beginning that drops the reader in the middle of things, this one seemed to be deliberately trying to keep the reader in the dark at least in part by refusing to name the entity the protagonist is investigating.
The story does have a lot of flash. There are secret entrances to offices and meeting rooms that can't be reached through normal means and, best of all, a secret library with a mysterious librarian who is cataloging all the knowledge of the unnamed entities.

The novel seemed to he trying to capture the feel of the original Matrix, with a secret reality that only a select few are privy to, and only this few can interact with this world, although everyone is impacted by it. Unfortunately, to me, it ended up feeling more like a story that was a cross between Marvel's Externals movie and a matrix sequel.

Review is based on an ARC from NetGalley

First things first: The art style is sublime. I read this as an eARC on my phone and I can only imagine the printed product is even more gorgeous. And easy 5/5 for the art.

I also enjoyed the story for the most part. The world was intriguing and so were the characters. And this is exactly why I wanted to know more. I wanted to know more about the detective, his family, the division he works for, the special car he drives… the didn’t seem to be much world-building, the world is just there. And that is a shame, because it seems like such an interesting world!

The detective’s case was interesting enough to follow - I won’t spoiler too much but the premise is that a murder has been committed. There is a bit of an unusual twist to the case as the victim is technically immortal! The case unravels from there.

The plot lost me a little in the end - and I’m not usually someone who will shy away from unusual or difficult to grasp plots. I think I understood everything that happened but it happened incredibly quickly. There is a final revelation about the world and the murder victim’s place in it in the end in particular that just left me a bit “eh”. I felt it was all dumped on me as a reader.

I’m sad this wasn’t all fleshed out more but as it is it feels undercooked.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

I really liked the coloring. Some of the artwork gets crazy looking, and I think they did a good job with depicting alien type stuff. The story was interesting and I liked the twist at the end.

This was such an exciting graphic novel. The world it takes place in could very easily be grim and imposing, as a noir detective novel ought to be, but the illustrations were colorful and vibrant. The landscapes were beautiful even in their dark and urban settings. The illustrators definitely used color and contrast in the perfect ratio to bring this world to life. The best kind of Sci-fi/Noir crossover. Every page was so much fun to look at.

The Detective, the main character was hard boiled but gentle when the plot asked it of him. He reminded me vaguely of Columbo, mostly because of the way he interacted with his family. A kind and hopeful detective in an unsettling, noir setting.

What really grabbed me where the fun ways the text on the page was used to progress the plot. I loved the use of [Redacted] in the text, and the code language, as well as the way the plot flowed across the page, drawing your eye as the Detective moved through the scene.

I highly recommend this book. It was a fun, quick read.

"Cosmic Detective" is a trippy, gorgeously realised science fiction mystery comic from the genius writing duo of Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt, with stunning artwork by David Rubin. Initially following standard detective fiction conventions, the story begins to unravel in the way that the very best works of Lemire and Kindt do; before long we are faced with the titular cosmic-ness and things continue to become more outlandish and mad-cap from there. The imaginations of both Lemire and Kindt are unparalleled and when they work together, the end result is almost always a fantastic experience. And that's just what "Cosmic Detective" was. David Rubin's artwork blends cartoonish line work with realistic and gruesome imagery - and that's before the cosmic elements even come into play; and it is through those cosmic moments that Rubin really steals the show. Endlessly inventive and stunning to behold, the visual storytelling on display here is outstanding.

The art is beautiful, gritty and colorful. This story has a fast pace to it but I enjoyed the artwork so much that I slowed down my reading to take in all of the art's details. I was invested in the case being solved but the detective's personal journey really made this story much more of a personal reading experience. I will be reading more from Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. And I am a new fan of David Rubin's art. This was a 5 star read.

I received an eARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This graphic novel had a very interesting concept and some gorgeous artwork that I really enjoyed. Other than slight gore (I'm so squeamish when it comes to bloody violence), I found myself so intrigued by the world and characters this author created. I feel like so many questions were left unanswered than not, and I find myself wondering if those questions would be answered in future volumes. I would definitely like to see that, as I felt that the ending was ambiguous enough to lead elsewhere. I would also love to see a woman be the main character of the story, I think she'd be the one to get to the bottom of everything for once and all; not just the mystery behind the Gods, but also the mystery of who employs the detectives and what their ultimate goal is. Fans of mysteries and Blade Runner-esque detectives will be intrigued by this graphic novel!

The story just wasn't for me. I liked the art work! And can see where others would really like it! Thank you for copy~

Writers Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt team up with David Rubin for Cosmic Detective, an excellent graphic novel that blends Jack Kirby, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Philip K. Dick and Moebius amongst others to create a cyber-noir mystery that keeps you guessing, even after you've finished reading it. I really think it could support more works in the series, but if this is it, they did it very well.

Special thanks to Image Comics and NetGalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

was very confusing, the graphics were cool but the storyline was a little confusing. especially the ending

I love cosmic books. It is my favorite genre and this definitely scratched an itch I had for a while for something new. I didn't realize that this would be a comic but I am still happy with what I read. This sense of dread and wondering who you can trust. While also wondering if doing a good deed will come back to bite you makes me excited for what is next.

The story itself is fast-paced and can be read quickly, but I'm personally doing a slooooow re-read to take in the beautiful art style. It's so expressive and atmospheric, imbuing the whole story with retro sci-fi vibes.
Kudos to David Rubín, amazing work!