Spaceman (comics)

Spaceman
The cover of Spaceman No. 1
Publication information
Publisher	Vertigo
Schedule	monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	science fiction
Publication date	October 2011
Creative team
Writer(s)	Brian Azzarello
Penciller(s)	Eduardo Risso
Letterer(s)	Clem Robins
Colorist(s)	Patricia Mulvihill, Giulia Brusco

Spaceman is a nine-issue, science fiction comic book miniseries written by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Eduardo Risso, and published by Vertigo. Azzarello and Risso previously collaborated for more than ten years on the Vertigo series 100 Bullets, as well as other projects such as the Flashpoint miniseries Batman: Knight of Vengeance.

Set in a post-apocalyptic near future, Spaceman tells the story of Orson, a hulking, lonely man who was genetically engineered by NASA to sustain long-term space flight. Flashbacks show Orson and other engineered participants of the project living and working on Mars. After NASA shuts down, however, Orson lives alone on Earth, salvaging scrap metal for a living. That is, until he finds himself at the center of a celebrity child kidnapping case.

Azzarello got the initial inspiration for the series from a conversation he had in a bar with a bioengineering professor from Northwestern University about the possibility of traveling to Mars. The engineer told him that it was currently impossible, because the human skeletal structure could not withstand that much time in space. When Azzarello suggested that children be bioengineered to have thicker bones, he conceived Orson, the main character of the series, and then began to build a world around him. In preparation for the series, Azzarello spent years doing research.

According to Azzarello, he first invited Risso to work with him on Spaceman, and three other stories he was planning to pitch, when the two were talking in a New York bar, probably during a farewell party for 100 Bullets. Risso immediately agreed, and all four stories were accepted when Azzarello pitched the ideas to a Vertigo representative. Spaceman is the first to be released.

An eight-page prelude to Spaceman was included in Strange Adventures No. 1, released by Vertigo on May 25, 2011.Spaceman No. 1 was released by Vertigo on October 26, 2011. The first issue sold for $1.

Spaceman features coloring by Patricia Mulvihill and Giulia Brusco, lettering by Clem Robins, and cover artwork by Dave Johnson. Both Mulvihill and Johnson previously worked on 100 Bullets.