I think it might be time to admit that Lemire is just not for me. The concepts for his work always catch my eye, but ultimately the execution doesn't end up working for me. I suppose I expected a Detective trying to solve the death of a god to be something that had a little more time to marinate. Nothing really felt like it had much time to develop, maybe because we were trying to keep to the beats of a detective story maybe because of the page constraints of a graphic novel. I think with just a little more time spent with some of the weirder elements of this it could have been really amazing, right now the art does a lot of the heavy lifting. There are some interesting moments though, if you're into the authors though this will probably be a hit.

The best thing I can say about Cosmic Detective is that the artwork and the storyline complement each other nicely. I loved the colors, which were vibrant and really helped set the tone. Unfortunately, I found the plot development and pacing to be problematic. Not only did it seem like there were some unexplained leaps in the story, but also that some included scenes didn't further the plot. For example, I would have loved for the bar scene (neat but unnecessary) to be cut and those pages used to more explicitly develop the Detective's backstory or the agency's duplicity. Or something.

One thing I did kind of like was the ending, mostly because it had a flipped sort of "The Most Dangerous Game" vibe, and that happens to be my all-time favorite short story. Of course, I recognize that as a very niche reaction, and I got no sense that that specific evocation was intentional, just happenstance based on my previous reading. Overall, Cosmic Detective left me disappointed because the idea behind the novel was clever—cosmic noir with a "they live among us" trope—but in the end, the concept was never fully realized.

Cosmic Detective is a neat little sci-fi mystery story that clearly gives nods to Jack Kirby, superhero comics, and noir detectives. The setting is vivid and interesting, and the mystery is engaging. Ultimately, a few of the concepts seemed derivative, but not necessarily in a bad way; it's hard to be original when there's so much material out there, and it felt like an homage or a rework rather than a copy! As a school librarian, I couldn't put this in our library due to cursing and sexual content, but it would be a good fit for a public library. I enjoyed the read, and would read more from these creators!

A beautifully drawn work that evokes the best of The Dresden Files. The world feels fleshed out, without getting caught up in describing every little detail. It assumes the reader is intelligent and allows us to follow along in the mystery. The content, both thematically and visual, is more mature, so some may want to be cautious in sharing it with young readers.

I am not quite sure how to feel about this story. The basic premise is a Decetive attempting to solve the murder of a God-like being. I was not a huge fan of the overall art style, and the story confused me. The whole narrative felt a bit rushed overall and while I liked the ending, I do not think this was a story for me.

I like Jeff Lemire’s work, for the most part.
I’ll have to admit, this one I didn’t care for at all.
The graphic novel centers around a detective trying to solve the death of a cosmic being.
Right from the first page, the artwork didn’t appeal to me. It didn’t really seem finished enough for me.
The overall look and feel of the characters and the world seemed off.
The story by Lemire just seemed rushed and haphazard.
I was never really invested in anything that was going on.
I’ll end this review on two positive notes.
1 – I did like the ending.
2 – I’ll still be interested in the next thing Lemire does.

Lemire's love of homage is a double-edged sword. One side of that edge is blunt–he's usually doing too much, and as a result too many of his characters are flat. But it works here because...well, reasons you have to have to read to find out, but boil down to: noir. This is a detective story first, weird second, and an homage to Kirby third. It's entertaining but, like a lot of Lemire's works as he goes on, it makes you wonder if it would be different if he slowed down. The art probably does as much of the heavy lifting in this story as the writing if not more, and a lot of the dynamic choices are great.

This graphic novel is beautifully illustrated.
I'm not sure I'd categorize this as a horror book though.

The drawing and colors of this graphic novel are great. I admit I had a little trouble following the story at times, but overall the story was interesting. How he got to the morgue and some other things, was trippy. While I don't know if this story was truly for me, others are going to love it.

I have enjoyed every book by Jeff Lemire. Even the DC comics ones, which are more normal than most of what he creates. So I crowdfunded this one, and I'm happy to see it finally in shops.

A detective investigates the murder of a god-like being and winds up learning far more than he expected. The art is amazing and goes a long way in adding the perfect gritty feel and weirdness throughout. The actual story though was a bit rushed. Given the reveal I wanted a bit more exploration of the mystery because things arrive at the end rather quickly and easily, which kills the impact a bit.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

I liked the ending, but it jumped straight into the action. I wish it had a little more set-up/ordinary world, maybe the end of a case instead of going straight into the murder. Art is very gritty, which is the vibe of the story, so good job. Just not my type of story.

This was beautifully strange.

"You're weird, Daddy."

The detective is having a bad time. When the body of an "unkillable" god appears, the detective has one week to solve the case. Can he solve the crime without losing what matters most?

I genuinely enjoyed this, the dialogue was quick and fun. Visuals were gritty and interesting. A vivid story with the colour palette to match. My only real complaint is wishing it was longer. I wanted to end to be a bit more impactful, but still a great experience.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC. Absolutely anything Jeff Lemire touches is gold in my opinion. And this hits the mark; again. I loved this science fiction cyberpunk mystery thriller about a detective whose new case maybe more than he bargained for. Fantastic illustrations and storytelling with some great ideals about underground world dominance and pesky immortal beings. And so much more. Check it out ASAP.

Not for the faint of heart, "Cosmic Detective" is a dark and hallucinogenic suspense tale follows an unnamed detective as he investigates the death of god-like being and uncovers uncomfortable truths about the very nature of existence. If Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, Timothy Leary and Franz Kafka collaborated on an episode of the "X-Files" the result would be similar to this book, - but probably not as weird. This book makes my brain hurt, - and it feels so good !

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Image Comics, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wayyyy to trippy for me. Some cool ideas here or there, dialogue is solid, cool art too but the story becomes almost nonsensical as it goes on and by the half way point I was trying to find a single character I could latch on to but could not.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
I really liked the art style. It felt "trippy"? But helped to immerse me in this world but unfortunately the story was disappointing especially how this story ended made everything pointless.

The art is really cool but I feel like there wasn’t quite enough plot. So much happened, one thing after another, and I felt like it wasn’t always a logical next step. Definitely an interesting story for what it was.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I’m a pretty big fan of Lenore’s work, but this one just seemed to be lacking something. Lemire/Kindt seem to want to make a Moebius/Heavy Metal future-noir but it doesn’t pan out.

I don’t dabble in adult comics/graphic novels much, but this was trippy! Loads of gorgeous colours, a fascinating world and some choice language (certainly different to kids books ha!). Great story though, and the spreads just had so much to look at!