Astronauts in Trouble: Master Flight Plan

I can't believe it took me so long to get this and read it. Kudos to Author Young for putting together an interesting story and then a prequel and sequel that do it justice. What fun! Highly recommended for fans of Space Travel, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Robots, Rockets, Reading & Drinking. You had me at "Astronauts..."

This book collects the three different "Astronauts in Trouble" series into an attractive, compact format. The rich stories feature sharp, stark black and white inking that does an excellent job of varying the level of detail from exacting to suggestive. And while many artists might have been tempted to go crazy with the techno aspects of the space storylines, Adlard is admirably restrained. However, production-wise, there are three areas for improvement: First, in a collection this long, there's no excuse for not having page numbers, especially when the layout allows plenty of margin to do so. Second, a dust jacket to tempt the browser with something visually arresting and make them want to open the covers (as the original series covers did). Here, they've gone the conceptual route, with a blah cover that's supposed to look like a government document -- sometimes clever concepts should remain as concepts. Finally, the paper stock is kind of cheap, with poor opacity, resulting in a lot of "see-through" inking from the reverse of pages. On to the the storytelling... Set in the not-to-distant future, "Live from the Moon" opens rather confusingly with an underwater hostage situation involving a news team confronting an ecoterrorist. The Channel Seven trio (cameraman, producer, reporter) escape by the skin of their teeth, establishing them as a news crew that lives dangerously. We next find them in Georgia, waiting to interview megabillioniare industrialist Ishmael Hayes about his latest venture. They're a little stunned to be introduced to his private lunar expedition, and more stunned when they find themselves along for a ride to the moon when an ecoterrorist causes a premature launch. Events get even more interesting when they discover his plan to stake claim to the entire moon... but when some gangsters back on Earth decide to launch Ukrainian nukes at them, things go from bad to worse. It's a very convoluted tale with a lot of "huh?" moments (SPOILER ALERT: Would old Soviet nukes actually be able to reach the moon? Would a short burst from a directional antenna actually divert including missiles? And if Hayes actually controls the ecoterrorists, why did he allow them to affect his operation?), but plenty of wit and style. The dialogue is especially good, and tends to distract from the plot holes. "Space: 1959" steps back a generation to the dawn of mobile television news, where an earlier (but strikingly similar) crew from Channel Seven plays detective. A seemingly innocuous downtown shooting puts them on the track of a secret government plan to beat the USSR to the moon. At a rocket base in Peru they meet Col. Macadam, a square-jawed, crew-cut, gung-ho '50s hero who won't let anyone interfere with his pet project. As in the first story, an infiltrator sabotages the plan, and Macadam must make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure no dirty commie is first to set foot on the moon. It's somewhat schizophrenic (intentionally so, according to the intr